Falps mate - I'm sorry but on a really rare occasion I disagree with you. I don't think leezyjet was being condescending in the slightest (although R&N perhaps a delicate place to broach his thoughts). As you know, I'm a relatively infrequent traveller and if I was involved in an incident of this nature, a brief comment from the flight deck along the lines of 'hey, they laid a touch too little tarmac - we'll stay here for a while whilst they bring the stairs right over' might just have lightened the situation for a bunch of people who only fly once or twice a year.
I witnessed the incident - it was not at all dramatic (from the ground anyway)and really is a bit of a storm in a teacup. Yes procedures are there to be followed and the RT activity at the time showed all involved (FD, fire and tower ATC) were calmly dealing with the situation.
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