Surveillance video shows the moment a panel come crashing down onto the platform at Harvard Station, and it isn’t the first time it’s happened in the same spot.
A panel fell from the ceiling of Harvard Station on the MBTA's Red Line on Thursday morning, two years after a pair of similar incidents at the same location.
The MBTA said it is investigating the incident around 7:30 a.m. Thursday where a single panel fell from the ceiling at Harvard Station on the southbound platform. They said no one was injured, and Red Line service was not impacted.
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Surveillance footage released Thursday by the MBTA shows the panel dropping near two people on the platform.
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MBTA engineering and station facilities management personnel are investigating, and the station remains open except for the immediate area where the panel fell. The panel is made of a light tin material and showed signs of corrosion, though what caused it to fall remains under investigation.
The T said similar panels at Harvard Station will be removed overnight.
The MBTA said visual inspections of the ceiling occur on a regular basis, and a hands-on inspection using ladders and lifts was conducted last summer.
A similar incident occurred in March of 2023, when a 25-pound ceiling panel fell on the same platform, narrowly missing a T rider as they approached a staircase. That near miss was blamed on corrosion from water and prompted the removal of 100 other ceiling panels.
Footage released by the MBTA at the time showed the falling panel dropping directly in front of a passenger, who spoke to NBC10 Boston about the shocking moment.
"To look back at the footage and see how close it was to potentially falling one me was hard to see," Cianna Navarro said. "At the moment I didn't know what had fallen. I was in such a state of shock. I couldn't really wrap my head around everything until I left the train station and I stopped and went to the sidewalk and just stood there to gather myself."
Just two months later, a woman was injured when a heavy utility box came down at Harvard Station, bringing with it a support brace that struck her. She wound up suing the MBTA, saying her injuries required ongoing and long-term medical treatment.
