U.S. Plane Lost Panel, Kept Flying

(CBS/AP)  American Airlines is investigating how a jet bound for Paris lost a panel from its belly shortly after taking off from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport before continuing on across the Atlantic.

Airline officials say the pilot thought the loud noises during the flight last month were due to cargo shifting, and in an internal memo they defended the crew.

A flight attendant on the April 20 trip said there was "a loud shaking noise from the belly of the plane." A few minutes later, there was another noise that "sounded like an explosion," the attendant said in an e-mail, according to Dallas television station WFAA.

The incident came to light because the flight attendants who heard the noise and felt the vibration believe their concerns were not taken seriously enough by the pilot, reports CBS News.

When the Boeing 767 landed safely in Paris after the nine-hour flight, ground crews discovered the panel about two feet by three feet and covering one of two air conditioners was gone.

In a statement, the airline said it was investigating the incident and wouldn't comment further.

"It was determined that at no time were crew or passengers at risk. The cabin never lost pressurization," the statement read.

Officials in the airline's flight department told pilots in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that the captain "did exactly what we want our captains to do."

"There was no way this crew could have known this panel had departed," said the memo from Jim Kaiser, American's manager of flight operations quality control, and Chuck Harman, the airline's fleet captain for Boeing 757 and 767 planes. "If they had known, they obviously would have returned" to DFW Airport.

According to the memo, no cockpit warning lights came on, and the pilot, who was not identified, also spoke to a maintenance technician in Fort Worth.

Kaiser and Harman, who are both pilots, said while pictures of the hole in the fuselage "are very dramatic," the passengers were never in danger.

A source at the airline, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk about the incident, said neither the captain nor other pilots who were on the flight as passengers noticed any unusual vibrations.

With a full load of fuel, the pilot would have been forced to circle DFW Airport while burning fuel, so he decided to keep heading toward the East Coast believing that he could make an emergency landing at any of several airports along the way, the official said.

Three hours into the flight, with no additional noises and the plane appearing to be burning fuel at a normal rate, the pilot decided the noise had probably been something shifting in the cargo hold, and he decided to continue across the Atlantic, the official said.

After the plane landed, a flight attendant snapped pictures of the missing panel, and the photos began circulating in e-mails between American Airlines employees.

Officials with the pilots' and flight attendants' unions did not immediately return messages for comment.

The incident on the Paris-bound flight occurred only a week after American canceled about 3,300 flights while it grounded its fleet of MD-80 jets to inspect electrical wiring.

[atlanta30326]

In light of what happened on this flight, it reminds me of a good thing. It stinks that all flights are now non-smoking, but I can usually get away with blowing the smoke out the gaping rusted holes in the plane''s fuselage.

[toolmangler-2009]

This just in: Airplane takes off, flies 700 miles and lands safely

[rushman71]

armadillo01: I''m sure they already have had an article with that title. Watch, they''ll have one titled "Gremlins Trained to Fly Planes, not Destroy it, by United Airlines". Hey, they love to fly, and it shows!!!

[armadillo01]

Keep an eye on the National Enquirer -- they''ll have an article soon on -Aliens Decapitate Cow in Texas--..

[adasher1]

mediapreachr, I agree 100%......also enough money to fly the planes to Mexio for the work to be done there instead of being done by skilled ''high dollar'' Americans.....there WILL be more of this....and worse, to come if they do not stop worring about the all mighty dollar....American Airlines CEO made over $6.6 million last year...nice work......must be nice to get that type of $$ and still suck...

[glock4me]

Recall back in the 1980s that an Aloha Airlines flight turned into a "convertable" in mid flight, but was able to land. Aircraft structures are very robust and can take a lot of damage and survive. However, if you loose an aerodynamic surface (rudder, flap, etc.) you are in deep ***.

Seems like the biggest danger in this case was potentially to someone on the ground being hit by the pannel. Wonder where it went? I didn''t see any mention in the article.

[gce65]

what are they supposed to do in mid flight, go outside and check?

[mediapreachr]

Pieces flying from the aircraft-translation-everyone in the airline business is cutting corners(some more than others).
Everything should be OK though-they have enough money left for the lobbyists in DC.

[jtormey3]

The Bobby Sturgell FAA: (A) continues to subject Americans to a steady stream of aircraft near-misses and near-disasters in epic numbers since Bobby Sturgell took over as Acting FAA Administrator half-a-year ago;(B) tells us that it is OK for an agency and airlines working together to enlist publicists to tell Americans that air travel was never safer whilst planes are falling apart in un-inspected disrepair, and passengers are continually put in harm%u2019s way; (C) is a revival of the Oberstar-decried, Schiavo-decried Tombstone Agency, the notion that %u2018If the plane doesn''t crash, we''re doing great%u2019; the notion that a federal agency is not required to anticipate and navigate around safety problems, but only react if there is a tombstone.

The talent pool is deeper than this. There is more to leadership than wearing aviator glasses. We have an ugly aviation safety crisis on our hands. Let''s wash our hands of it. Let%u2019s wash our hands of Bobby Sturgell and his failed administration. The FAA%u2019s cozy relationship with the airlines and the agency''s abject failure to regulate must end NOW. We again ask all members of the United States Congress to Just Say No to Bobby Sturgell.

[timdgrim]

It''s really AA way of getting rid of extra weight so they can save on fuel. Pretty soon they''ll take the seats out and have everybody sit on a pillow. (Pillow $5 extra)