NTSB to probe Ryanair incident. Photo: Shutterstock A new preliminary report from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has shed more light on a serious Ryanair incident in Greece last month.
The incident occurred on July 10, 2026, when Malta Air flight 1879, operating as Ryanair, was climbing from Thessaloniki International Airport (SKG) toward Memmingen, Germany. The Boeing 737-8AS, registered as 9H-QEU, was carrying 149 passengers, including one lap child, as well as six crew members.
At approximately 16,000 feet near Polykastro, Greece, the flight crew received a high-vibration warning from the No. 2 engine. They initially reduced engine power and followed the relevant checklist.
The vibration subsequently decreased, allowing the crew to continue climbing. However, the vibration then increased significantly before the pilots heard a loud bang.
The aircraft's autopilot disengaged and the crew began assessing the engine. Shortly afterward, the cabin altitude warning sounded, indicating a loss of pressurization.
The pilots donned their oxygen masks, declared an emergency and initiated a rapid descent.
The engine failure caused fragments to strike the aircraft's fuselage and right horizontal stabilizer.
One of the most serious consequences occurred in the passenger cabin, where the window at row 11 was completely missing. According to the report, a passenger in seat 11F was partially lodged in the damaged window opening.
Other passengers and a flight attendant helped pull the injured passenger back inside the aircraft. The passenger was subsequently moved to row 12, where a doctor traveling on the flight provided medical assistance.
The aircraft returned to Thessaloniki and landed without further incident. The NTSB recorded one serious passenger injury and 154 people with no injuries.
The NTSB's examination found that the No. 2 CFM56-7B26 engine had suffered a fan-blade separation.
Fan blade No. 10 fractured and separated below the blade platform, while the outer tips of two additional fan blades, Nos. 16 and 21, were also fractured.
Investigators recovered bird remains, including feathers, from several areas of the engine. These included the forward face of the integrated drive generator oil cooler, a thrust reverser blocker door drag link and the lower portion of the engine fan case.
The samples were sent to the Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Lab for further examination.
The report also revealed that the aircraft's No. 2 engine had been involved in four suspected bird strikes during the 12 months before the accident. Subsequent maintenance inspections reportedly found no damage, although bird remains were found in two of those earlier cases.
Importantly, the NTSB has not concluded that a bird strike caused the July 10 engine failure.
The examination of fan blade No. 10 found that it had fractured through the blade's dovetail in the root.
According to the preliminary report, approximately 37% of the fracture surface displayed features consistent with fatigue. Investigators identified multiple origins and observed fatigue striations under scanning electron microscopy.
The NTSB said the characteristics were consistent with high-amplitude fatigue (HAF), a type of cyclic loading associated with engine fan blade fractures.
The finding is particularly significant because the fan blades had undergone ultrasonic inspections in November 2025 and again on May 24, 2026, just 253 flight cycles before the accident. Those inspections reportedly found no indications of cracking.
The relevant CFM service bulletin was originally issued following an earlier fan-blade-out event from 2018 involving the same engine model in which a passenger was fatally injured.