OOPS!

 

The air bag is below that panel; it is designed to split open to allow the air bag (21) to inflate in an accident. I would push the panel back in place as best you can, then if you want to put your feet up, sit in the back and lay the front seat down

 

Oh the horrors of having your feet up and an accident with airbag going off. Please don’t do that. I had a cousin that had her feet up on dash and was in an accident with airbag deployment. The force broke ankles, forced her knees into her face, broke ribs and punctured her lung. She recovered but it was a hard long road back without major life altering effects

 

Horrible is when "someone else" has to pay the price by subsidizing the medical care of a person who doesn't understand inertia. Experiencing the consequences of behavior should be educational. If experience didn't alter future behavior, that would be horrible. .

A passenger with their feet on top of the dash would be injured in a frontal collision even with no airbag. As an experiment in my garage, I tried putting my feet up there and found that it was very difficult to do while wearing the seat belt. Without it, a passenger would become a projectile. In a frontal collision, if the windshield restrained their feet, the ankles being over-extended, the face thrust into knees, the butt sliding forward and dropping down, could result in all the described injuries. The degree would depend only on speed.

 

That is exactly where the airbag is. If you havent gotten the airbags replaced from the recall that would be repaired.