Where are the good old experienced barnstormers when you need them... (strange, how they only appear on Airbus incident related threads
)
Good airmanship includes the ability to quickly tell the difference between a real warning and a false positive. Sensor faults are an everyday occurrence, if all pilots would follow worst case scenario procedures, half of the flights would never make it accross the Atlantic (ok, that was an exaggeration...
). In this case IF there was no other indication of fire, then I concur the evacuation was a rather costly overreaction. However early on the thread there was a comment or two, yet unconfirmed, that the cabin crew did report smelling smoke in the back (whether real or perceived is a different story...), in which case the evacuation order would have been perfectly justified.
It all boils down to an often discussed theme: some crews are capable of evaluating a situation and making a decision based on sound assessment of risks, and some take a go by the book, CYA attitude. Same happens in every profession. Can you blame the latter ? By the rules, no. Is the first course of action more professional ... ?