Narrative:

While dealing with a mechanical; a passenger dropped her cell phone in the cargo area behind the side panel. I was doing water in the coach cabin when I heard a loud hissing sound. I took several steps back and forth to hear the noise and make sure as it sounded like a pressure leak and I asked the passenger in the area if they heard it; they said yes. My flying partner in the back also reported a strange smell... The mechanic was on board and I asked him to please take a look at it which he did and quickly told me it was nothing; it was just the air conditioning and [he] did not hear the loud hissing. I was not comfortable with his answer but said to myself he's the mechanic; he knows...after about 10 minutes; the passenger at that row rang her call light and reported heat coming from the wall. I immediately moved the passenger from the area and began to feel the wall which felt really hot including her seatbelt and the floor area. I felt the wall three rows down and three rows up and determined it was only by two rows. Went up to the cockpit and told the captain and the mechanic who was standing there and the response was one of aggravation and being annoyed. The mechanic stormed out of the cockpit after making some comments and went to look. Well we took another one hour and some delay turning power and air conditioning off back and forth while they were trying to determine the source of the heat.my problem with this whole situation is the same as in my previous reports... Why are we not taken seriously when we voice concerns? We are trained to detect hidden fires and we were on the ground while this happened thankfully; but it could have been in-flight and who knows what would have happened. I felt like we avoided a potentially serious situation. However when I brought it up the first time I was dismissed again. I was never told why or what happened and we just left. I had a talk with the mechanics when I returned and they are under the impression that the captain should have told us what happened and how they fixed it.my concern is if you are here with me why don't you just address me and tell me what you did. My flying partners and I feel the same since we are being ignored and treated like; just flight attendants; like it was put to me by one of [our] company employee. I may not know the mechanical terms but if something doesn't sound right; smell right or feel right in the cabin; we know right away. I am tired of this behavior and I've encountered it over and over in the past few weeks and something needs to change.I'm glad I was proactive and asked the mechanic to go back and look at the row and maybe spared us from a diversion; but it should have been taken care right away since the sound was not normal. Please let me know what's being done about these airplanes that are being written up over and overspend the night in our maintenance base and still nothing.... I am feeling extremely unsafe on these B757 these days and since that's all we fly out of; I don't have a choice but to be on them.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant reports about her efforts to get Maintenance to troubleshoot the cause of a hissing noise after a passenger dropped a cell phone down behind a B757's cabin sidewall panel. Passenger also alerted Flight Attendant about heat coming from the sidewall; seatbelt and floor. Mechanic's negative comments; attitude and lack of respect contributed to her concerns.

Narrative: While dealing with a mechanical; a passenger dropped her cell phone in the cargo area behind the side panel. I was doing water in the Coach Cabin when I heard a loud hissing sound. I took several steps back and forth to hear the noise and make sure as it sounded like a pressure leak and I asked the passenger in the area if they heard it; they said yes. My flying partner in the back also reported a strange smell... The Mechanic was on board and I asked him to please take a look at it which he did and quickly told me it was nothing; it was just the air conditioning and [he] did not hear the loud hissing. I was not comfortable with his answer but said to myself he's the Mechanic; he knows...After about 10 minutes; the passenger at that row rang her call light and reported heat coming from the wall. I immediately moved the passenger from the area and began to feel the wall which felt really hot including her seatbelt and the floor area. I felt the wall three rows down and three rows up and determined it was only by two rows. Went up to the cockpit and told the Captain and the Mechanic who was standing there and the response was one of aggravation and being annoyed. The Mechanic stormed out of the cockpit after making some comments and went to look. Well we took another one hour and some delay turning power and air conditioning off back and forth while they were trying to determine the source of the heat.My problem with this whole situation is the same as in my previous reports... Why are we not taken seriously when we voice concerns? We are trained to detect hidden fires and we were on the ground while this happened thankfully; but it could have been in-flight and who knows what would have happened. I felt like we avoided a potentially serious situation. However when I brought it up the first time I was dismissed again. I was never told why or what happened and we just left. I had a talk with the mechanics when I returned and they are under the impression that the Captain should have told us what happened and how they fixed it.My concern is if you are here with me why don't you just address ME and tell me what you did. My flying partners and I feel the same since we are being ignored and treated like; just flight attendants; like it was put to me by one of [our] company employee. I may not know the mechanical terms but if something doesn't sound right; smell right or feel right in the cabin; WE know right away. I am tired of this behavior and I've encountered it over and over in the past few weeks and something needs to change.I'm glad I was proactive and asked the Mechanic to go back and look at the row and maybe spared us from a diversion; but it should have been taken care right away since the sound was not normal. Please let me know what's being done about these airplanes that are being written up over and overspend the night in our Maintenance Base and still nothing.... I am feeling extremely unsafe on these B757 these days and since that's all we fly out of; I don't have a choice but to be on them.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.