I was running out of patience at the Ottawa airport yesterday afternoon, after the plane was taxiing for half an hour to the runway. Finally, the Embraer Emb 145 Jet geared up and started accelerating. Peng! With a strange sound, the gentleman sitting right in front of me grabbed his head by both hands. I couldn't believe my eyes, but the small panel above his seat apparently just fell down and struck the poor man's head, only still hanging to the plane through a couple tubes. Ouch! Fortunately, the gentleman said his head was fine after immediately using an ice pack except for a little headache.

I heard someone in the half-empty 50-seat plane say, "is that panel made of plastics? That's probably why it doesn't hurt as much [as metal]."

Good point! Maybe it'll even be safer with a layer of overmolded thermoplastic elastomer.