Passenger survives aeroplane drama

**Bisi Adibayo** (0:01)
How did a cabin window shatter on a Ryanair flight? It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service. I am Bisi Adibayo. Also, could Easyjet be heading for a takeover battle? And Europe's heat wave is taking a growing toll on Swiss farmers.
A man was reportedly partially sucked out of a damaged plane window on a Ryanair flight this morning. The European budget airline confirmed a window had dislodged mid-air and that one passenger received medical treatment after landing. I spoke to our correspondent, Theo Liggett.

**Theo Liggett** (0:41)
So this was an early morning Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingham in southern Germany. And very early in the flight, according to Traces on Flight Radar, it suffered a problem. Now, a dry statement from Ryanair says that a window became dislodged. The aircraft returned to Thessaloniki, landed safely and one passenger requested and then received medical assistance. But behind that rather bald statement, we know that there was a traumatic incident and people who are on the plane have spoken to local media. And what they've described is a loud bang followed by a window shattering, oxygen masks coming down, and one unfortunate gentleman being partially sucked out of the window, because of course the plane would have decompressed very, very rapidly. The air pressure on the outside of the plane would have been much lower than inside it. So all the air would have gone rushing out. He was caught up in that and reportedly his head and part of his shoulders were pointing out the window. He was restrained by his seatbelt and by people around him. So an extremely traumatic incident. But as far as we know, he was not seriously hurt. It said that he's recovering in hospital, a 61 year old Serbian gentleman, and that he has friction burns. So on the face of it, this is something that was very traumatic, but could have been a lot worse.

**Bisi Adibayo** (1:56)
But how unusual is it for a cabin window to shatter in flight?

**Theo Liggett** (2:01)
It's extremely unusual. These windows are designed to be very, very safe. There are precedents for windows breaking, but normally something has happened to break them. So for example, back in 2018, a Southwest Airlines 737 suffered a shattered window because one of the engines suffered what's called an uncontained failure. That's a failure of the engine where parts of it break out of the engine casing and are able to hit parts of the aircraft, including in this case, the windows. On that occasion, tragically, a woman died from her injuries because exactly the same thing happened. She was forced partly out of the window. Now in this case, we have unconfirmed reports that the aircraft did suffer an engine failure and that it was debris from the engine that shattered the window. There's no confirmation of that, however, and Ryanair hasn't said anything about it.

**Bisi Adibayo** (2:49)
The oligarch is there. Now, South Korean semiconductor maker SK Hynex is listing in New York today. Randeep Samell, fund manager at M&G Investments, is with us.
SK Hynex has raised a record amount in New York. What does that tell us about investor appetite for AI?

**Randeep Samell** (3:07)
Hi, Bizzy. It shows that investor appetite remains very strong. SK Hynex, along with Samsung and Micron, are manufacturers of memory, something that's in high demand and a big bottleneck currently for the development of AI infrastructure, namely data centers.
SK Hynex has performed a secondary listing, its primary is in South Korea, on the New York Stock Exchange to raise $26.5 billion, and it was seven times oversubscribed, so it shows that the demand remains strong.

**Bisi Adibayo** (3:38)
And in takeover news, Randi, are we about to see a bid in war for the European low-cost carrier, Easyjet?

**Randeep Samell** (3:46)
It looks that way. US company Castle Lake, which is involved in aviation financing, had its fifth offer for Easyjet approved by Easyjet's board at £5.5 billion.
Now, probably a little unexpectedly, Apollo, another private equity group, has come in at a slightly higher offer of $5.7 billion, seeing that they can see higher value in Easyjet. Now, we have until August 3rd before a firm offer needs to be made. So there is a chance that Castle Lake may come back with a higher offer or potentially another party comes in as well.

**Bisi Adibayo** (4:19)
Many thanks, Randip Sommel of M&G Investments.
The International Energy Agency says global oil demand is on course to fall next year for the first time since the COVID pandemic. It says disruption in the Middle East has hit supplies through the Strait of Hombus, although exports are beginning to recover. The agency warns, though, that any renewed escalation could keep oil markets on the edge.