Agree.

Take-off abort would be a much bigger safety issue than some plastic being out of place.

A flight attendant called for the captain to abort....yeah....sure.

I know the panel is nothing structural, but at the moment we didn't know if there was further damage. I'm glad the flight attendant alerted the cockpit as soon as it happened. And yes, the pilot and copilot took turns flying the pane while the other one checked out the situation. I don't know where they stored the panel during the flight, but it was cool to look up and see all the wiring and such (once we knew it was nothing structural).

The FA used the phone at the jumpseat to alert the pilot. IIRC, her words were "Stop the plane!"

Happened to me in 1986 on an Aeroflot flight to Moscow. Figured that was fairly normal on that airline at the time ;-)

Wow, that is a brain dead move if it really happened during the takeoff roll. She needs to be retrained on CRM big time.

Agree that the ceiling panel can wait until 10k ft (and it did), but I'd much rather have the FA alert the cockpit and have them make that decision than the FA. However...

+1 to AFPilot1985. That's not the right way to alert the cockpit, IMO. They need to know what's going on so they can add it to the other factors (speed, amount of runway left, etc.) and then make the decision on whether or not to abort.

It sounds even sillier the second time around. You should stop now.

Aren't FAs trained not to panic. Would the pilots have even answered the phone from the FA during the takeoff roll?

This thread reminds me of the CR9s F Lav door. They pop out every once in a while and although they are nice to have, they don't really impact anything to do with the airworthiness of an aircraft. I honestly wonder what the pilots did if they answered that call on the takeoff roll. I can't envision a panel falling out until close to rotation at which point by the time the pilots answered the call the plane was probably already starting to lift off.

Perhaps a pilot or FA can comment....

BUT lets keep in mind that when it happened the FA had no idea of knowing it was JUST a plastic panel. From their jump seat they saw a TEN FOOT section of the interior of the aircraft fall down (presumably on passengers' heads). The FA had no idea if there was structural damage or if the TEN FOOT plastic panel posed a danger to people within the cabin in flight.

It makes perfect sense to have the plane stop if it can safely do so.


As a side note...on military transports where they don't care about ascetics it looks like this....

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/...52_634x471.jpg

(Given the ample space you think they could space the rows out better!)

no

No freaking way. FA telling the captain to stop the plane is ludicrous!!

At best the FA alerted the captain to the sitch with something like "we have a loose panel in the forward part of the cabin."

And Unless the plane had any major warnings to pilots compromising the integrity of the cabin its wheels up lets go. Engines are at 90-95% thrust. Can't just call it quits that easily.

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

AFAIK, the panel is polyurethane and not very heavy. Still, it is good that no one got cut or otherwise injured. I, too, am surprised that the FA apparently over-reacted.