I never thought that I would be a witness to one of these events - but I was a passenger on the said EK040....
No screams. No panic. Just a professional crowd of people doing their job. We were almost over the Dutch coast when the Aussie captain announced that we had left a panel on the runway at BHX, and in the interests of safety, we were going to go to LGW to get it looked at. Dumped a bit of fuel, landed. Captain spoke to ground engineers, decided that it couldn't be remedied in a sensible amount of time (I understand - but don't know - that the panel was an inspection cover off the number 2 engine pylon).
We all got rerouted. Not really news at all - as I say, just a professional group of people doing the business, and doing it well.
Thanks to them all!
TA