Originally Posted by
NWAFA
Interesting flight!
As everyone has stated, the panel is only cosmetic. No danger of the planes's ability to take off, though someone could have been injured. It is something that doesn't happen everyday and can rattle people. I've seen a few panels fall at takeoff in my career.
Now, talking to the cockpit during takeoff. You don't break sterile cockpit with the exception of an emergency. I've done it twice. The first, DC10, heart attack at just the start of roll. The Captain did abort takeoff. Had he not have the time or distance he would have continued the takeoff. It's one of the times pilots are trained to make decisions for. We did stop and were able to get the ill passenger off the plane and then takeoff. The Captain thanked me for saving a passengers life and to be able to save the company big bucks for not having to dump fuel and then having to start again.
The second time, another DC10, taking off out of BOS. I was sitting at 4R for takeoff. On the roll, the door opened. Did I call the cockpit? HELL YEAH! Did we stop? No. To late, we had reached the point of no return and took off. As soon as I was able, I went into the cockpit. Long story shorter, the pressurization sealed the door and we continued. The same thing happened upon landing in LAX. 1R opened and then closed. Experience taught me that to keep an eye on it and notify the cockpit after sterile cockpit.
We are trained to respond to emergencies, not "react" to them. However, being human and thus imperfect, who knows how we'll respond in the face of danger. The FA on this plane didn't respond well, but probably hadn't experienced something like it before. From my experience, the Captain probably took some time to explain the situation to the FA. It won't happen to that FA again. On the job training. Some things can't be taught in school.
Soooo, everything turned out fine on the OP's flight and the flight continued on it's way.
NWAFA
Those are both examples of perfect reasons to alert the cockpit on a takeoff roll. With the heart attack there was no way they would have known in the cockpit and depending on how open the door was it might not have set off an indicator. A couple of studies on have been done on CRM and FA reluctance to break sterile cockpit. They've found a couple of things. One of the main points is that more training needs to be provided to FAs on the mechanical aspects of the aircraft. Obviously they don't need to know the systems of the aircraft to the extent to that the pilot does, but some education on what is safe/unsafe and what specific items are worth calling the cockpit on regardless of the phase of flight is something that should be covered. Engine falls off, alert the cockpit. Cosmetic panel falls off, wait until 10K and notify them. This would also eliminate the other major issue which is reluctance to notify the cockpit during sterile cockpit for anything. A few years ago an ATR-72 flight attendant noticed a leaking sound that wasn't normal from a door and a few minutes later it separated from the aircraft, she was reluctant to notify the cockpit because they were only at 600ft after takeoff. Obviously this should have been reported.