US investigators have confirmed what sounds like a scene from a disaster movie but was, unfortunately, real life: broken engine fragments smashed a cabin window on a Ryanair flight last month, and a man's head and right shoulder got sucked into the resulting hole. Because why not?

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in a preliminary report, revealed that an engine fan blade broke shortly after takeoff on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany. Serbian national Ljubisa Karović's head and right shoulder were then unceremoniously invited outside the aircraft, leaving him "seriously injured and in shock." His wife, Svetlana Grković Maksimović, later told BBC Serbia that she and two other passengers held onto his legs for several minutes. Romance is alive, folks.

The NTSB report states that the flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen "experienced a No. 2 (right) engine fan-blade-out (FBO) failure during climb out." The crew, in a display of calm professionalism, elected to return to Thessaloniki International Airport, where they made an "uneventful landing." Because after an engine blade flies through a window, "uneventful" is relative.

The report also detailed the crew's timeline: they received a "high vibration" engine alert during climb, reduced engine power, ran checks, and when vibrations stopped, continued climbing on autopilot. Then the vibrations returned with a vengeance, accompanied by a loud bang, prompting an emergency declaration and descent. Flight attendants reported hearing and feeling vibrations, seeing a small amount of smoke, and deploying oxygen masks. One attendant noticed passengers calling for help as a passenger became "partially lodged in a damaged cabin window," with the entire window missing. Talk about a draft.

The engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May, with no findings of fault. Naturally. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary had earlier suggested "foreign object damage" might be to blame, which is code for "something we didn't see coming." The aircraft was operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air.

So, next time you're on a Ryanair flight and hear a bang, just remember: it's probably fine. Probably.