A friend of one of the passengers said the pilot announced there was smoke coming from the instrument panel.
Without specific reference to this incident & of a generalised nature.
I have maintained for some time, we (as pilots) are telling the folks on board too much about issues thay may or may not understand.
Unless it's glaringly obvious to the passengers, I simply use the terms:
a. "in the interest of safety we will be........"
b. "we have a technical issue so we will be.........."
c. "we have an indication in the flightdeck so we will be.........."
d. "our engineers are working on a minor issue so we will be..........."
In nearly 20 years of airline flying, I have never had a passenger want more specific information after a generalised PA about a technical issue.
What I am quite specific about is, how they as passengers will be affected. How long the delay is, what we are doing about their connecting flights, what time they will be getting to their destination & that we are dealing with the problem as expeditiously as possible. And most importantly it's in the interest of their safety.
And we wonder why wer'e all getting a bad wrap in the press about issues that are mostly inconsequential.
MC