Narrative:

I was seated in my jumpseat at L2 door during takeoff when another flight attendant and I heard a loud bang noise. My first thought was that something shifted from under the cargo hold. We stayed in our brace position and airplane continued to climb and the wheels retracted. Soon a passenger call button dinged at row seven on the right side. The lead flight attendant took the passenger call and returned to the forward galley the other flight attendant and I saw that she was on interphone with the captain. We then heard another passenger call; again on the right side of the aircraft. I rushed over to see what was happening and the passenger pointed at the engine. I looked out and saw that the engine housing was missing and appeared to have been ripped off. I told the passenger the captain had been made aware of situation; to remain calm and that we would have more information for them as soon as we could. I made sure the passengers in that area were seated with their seat belts on and then returned to the aft galley to inform the third flight attendant what I saw. Since the lead flight attendant was still on interphone with the captain explaining what she saw; I made a PA announcement to inform the passengers that the captain was aware and will give us more information as soon as he can and to remain seated with seat belts fastened since people might get curious and try to stand up and look over to the right side of the aircraft. The lead flight attendant then informed us; per the captain that we are going to return to our departure airport as a precaution. The captain then made an announcement and we prepared the cabin for landing. A few people were nervous and I comforted them and informed them that everything would be ok and we would land safely in a few minutes. When we landed the captain announced that emergency vehicles would inspect the jet as a precaution and; after about 20 minutes of being on tarmac; made another announcement that we would be towed to the gate.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: When a A319 shed the left engine cowling during takeoff the flight crew returned to the departure airport for maintenance.

Narrative: I was seated in my jumpseat at L2 door during takeoff when another flight attendant and I heard a loud bang noise. My first thought was that something shifted from under the cargo hold. We stayed in our brace position and airplane continued to climb and the wheels retracted. Soon a passenger call button dinged at row seven on the right side. The Lead Flight Attendant took the passenger call and returned to the forward galley the other flight attendant and I saw that she was on interphone with the Captain. We then heard another passenger call; again on the right side of the aircraft. I rushed over to see what was happening and the passenger pointed at the engine. I looked out and saw that the engine housing was missing and appeared to have been ripped off. I told the passenger the Captain had been made aware of situation; to remain calm and that we would have more information for them as soon as we could. I made sure the passengers in that area were seated with their seat belts on and then returned to the aft galley to inform the third flight attendant what I saw. Since the Lead Flight Attendant was still on interphone with the Captain explaining what she saw; I made a PA announcement to inform the passengers that the Captain was aware and will give us more information as soon as he can and to remain seated with seat belts fastened since people might get curious and try to stand up and look over to the right side of the aircraft. The Lead Flight Attendant then informed us; per the Captain that we are going to return to our departure airport as a precaution. The Captain then made an announcement and we prepared the cabin for landing. A few people were nervous and I comforted them and informed them that everything would be ok and we would land safely in a few minutes. When we landed the Captain announced that emergency vehicles would inspect the jet as a precaution and; after about 20 minutes of being on tarmac; made another announcement that we would be towed to the gate.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.