I concur fully with the idea of pre stating one profession prior to spouting.
Pilot 3rd generation, Capt for 25yrs.
Ok, the dumbness of some SLF never ceases to amaze me! How many stand up, start getting hand luggage form lockers well before the aircraft has actually stopped. In my experience no passenger yet has beaten the aircraft to the terminal, so stay sat down as you are told to!Jeez!
The thought that some of these so called experts, because they sit in the back alot, inititiating an evacuation, without it being clearly catastrophic, just stuns me. A bit like Stevie Wonder having ago at rally driving if you get my drift!
The addition of SCCMs, Pursers or whatever your company calls the Captains representative in the Cabin, into recurrent simulators is great. We tried it once and got a big thumbs up from those attending........however there were those who didn't turn up
The biggest thing that got passed along was how long making an EVAC decision can take.
The time is needed to ensure that it is SAFE to evacuate. Engines shut down etc Emergency services alerted and finally the decision to get people to throw themselves down a teflon covered slide with concrete at the bottom.
The fact that only 4 people were injured in this case was frankly a miracle.
So whoever said it, the SCCM in this case should have MADE sure she got a response from the FD crew. It simply was NOT in her perview or anybodyelse's to initiate an evacuation without the Captain's order.
IMHO the SCCM sounds like a loose cannon, should be busted back to a no2 or whatever and retrained in SEP and CRM.
But what do I know!