Remains of a bird were found in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane, where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window following a takeoff from Greece back in July, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The NTSB are investigating this incident, which saw one passenger suffer serious injuries, after a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window.
This incident happened after the window was broken by a piece of debris which was detached from one of the plane's engines, according to local Greek media.
The passenger in question, from Serbia, was on a flight to Memmingen, Germany from Thessaloniki in Greece. More on this here.
Since then, RTÉ have reported that the NTSB said that bird remains, including feathers were found in "the forward face of IDG oil cooler, one of the thrust reverser blocker door drag links and the lower (6 o'clock position) of the engine fan case near the thrust reverser split flange".
Their preliminary reports on this incident, have said that four suspected bird strikes to the aircraft's No 2 engine were also reported by flight crew in the 12 months which had preceded the incident.
"Bird remains were reportedly found in two of the cases", the reported said, while adding tha no damage was found during subsequent maintenance of the plane.
Following an examination, cases of fractured fan blades, as well as three loose fan blade fragments were found in the engine. The cockpit voice recorder which was referred to in the report, said that a loud bang had been recorded about 9 minutes and 20 seconds after the start of the takeoff roll.
The NTSB said the CFM engine had been previously inspected in May with no findings.
Ryanair have declined to comment, while a spokesperson for CFM had said they were assisting with the investigation.
The report went on to reveal that it is still looking into whether this incident is also similar to other cases, including an engine failure in April 2018, which happened on a US Southwest Airlines flight, where a passenger had died after being partially sucked out of the window.
"The investigative team is aware of previous ... events with similar engine models that resulted in damage to engine inlets or cowlings and fuselage structures," the report said. "Determination of any relevant similarities or details between this accident and previous events remains under investigation".
Last month FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said "I don't think the early indications are that (the recent Ryanair problem) mimics what the Southwest incident was". (All quotes according to RTÉ).
