Uhm, one might say that as a result of CabinCrew taking unilateral action to evacuate, as a result of witnessing a tail-pipe fire (if that indeed was what it was), they rather recklessly exceeded their reemit, in as much that most airlines only allow CabinCrew to order an evacuation if the situation is quite
obviously 'catastrophic' - and there's the rub....... define catastrophic ?! ( and I'm afraid to report that, as alluded to above, some 'cabin safety specialists'
are not clear about what is catastrophic and what is not ), e.g. and using words which mean something similar - how about
: disastrous, calamitous, shattering, appalling, terrible, ruinous, tragic, cataclysmic - accordingly the definition of 'catastrophic' has been a mute point for a long time.
Now in this instance one can suppose they had not hit anything, they had not crashed, and the aircraft had not come apart, etc, so just what therefore was the justification to initiate an evacuation - was it really a 'catastrophic' situation ? Did the cabin crew really think it through, did the thought cross their mind that the flight crew might just indeed be 'working the problem' and need some time to do so, did they contact the flightdeck (whom maybe did not respond straight away because they were working the problem), or was it simply a case of blind panic ?
And before anybody says it, "yes, I do remember Manchester" - i.e. where burning fuel was pooling under the aircraft, smoke and flames were entering the cabin (which sounds kind of catastrophic to me).
Maybe a little perspective might help here too, e.g. the time from your first flying lesson to sitting in the LHS of an airliner is typically many (read,
MANY) years because you need the experience and must be able to exhibit sound judgement before you're to be trusted with the lives of hundreds.
However (and I mean NO disrespect) the time it takes to train to become a No.1 / CSD / Purser with some airlines can be as quick as a few months, and you can take somebody off the street and train them to be CabinCrew in anything from 10 days to 6 weeks - and yet some people are proposing that this then provides them with the knowledge, experience and decision making skills to decide that it's better to be outside the aircraft than inside it ? Well not imho it doesn't.
Yes we are all part of a team, but there is an authority gradient and it's there for a good reason - however unfortunately (and again, imho) some have it in their head ( maybe from how they've been taught CRM and / or modern education ? ) that aboard the aircraft we are all 'equal' and that each has an equal say in how the aircraft is operated and can make decisions accordingly - wrong ! - and I can only surmise that some of the comments above promoting that CabinCrew can initiate an evacuation when it is not yet catastrophic are coming from people who have little or no real knowledge or understanding of airline(r) operations.
Plain and simple the way it should be done is that the Captain alone makes the decision to evacuate the aircraft and only in
EXCEPTIONAL circumstances ( e.g. the aircraft is involved in a 'catastrophic' incident ) are the CabinCrew allowed to make the same decision off their own back.
Outside of that ( imho ) CabinCrew, engineers, ramp staff would all benefit from occasionally being included in our (six monthly) simulator refreshers - observing from the sim jumpseat - as it would then give them a chance to see that when things do go wrong (and they do) just what the timeline is between something happening, us recognising it, then resolving what to do about it, and actioning the plan ( i.e. applying DODAR ), as well as the need for accurate communications across the flight deck door ( which of course is now locked !
)