By David Shepardson and Allison Lampert
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Bird remains were found in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window shortly after takeoff from Greece in July, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday.
The NTSB is investigating the incident where a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window, leaving one passenger with serious injuries. The plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing.
The NTSB said in its preliminary report into the July 10 incident that four suspected bird strikes to the airplane's No. 2 engine were reported by flight crew in the 12 months preceding the accident.
"Bird remains were reportedly found in two of the cases," although no damage was located during subsequent maintenance, it said.
A loud bang sound was recorded about nine minutes and twenty
seconds after the start of the takeoff roll, according to the cockpit voice recorder cited in the report.
Examination of the engine revealed cases of fractured fan blades, while three loose fan blade fragments were recovered from the engine.
The NTSB said the CFM engine made by a venture between France's Safran and U.S.-based General Electric had been inspected in May with no findings.
Ryanair declined to comment on Thursday while a spokesperson for CFM said it was assisting with the investigation. Boeing deferred to the NTSB, citing the agency's requirements and international rules governing air crash investigations.
The NTSB, an independent U.S. government agency that investigates civil transportation accidents, is leading the investigation into the Ryanair flight.
The agency said it is still looking at whether the incident is similar to other cases, such as an April 2018 engine failure on a U.S. Southwest Airlines flight that killed a passenger who was partially sucked out 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."
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters last month in an interview: "I don't think the early indications are that (the recent Ryanair problem) mimics what the Southwest incident was."
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Shri Navaratnam)
