I have read the numerous posts on this thread with great interest with a mixed opinion to many of the comments, most i presume have come from pilots though some a believe from other area's of the industry.
Now its all very well saying 'terminate' the scc involved but a lot more to the situation, a merger with many sop changes in last 3 years hasnt helped, and to be honest crm was not good it doeasnt help when pilots dont respond ( a lot of pilots/cabin crew still have crap crm skills & yes i am entitled to say this i have been cc for 30 years, 20 years as a safety security and crm instructor and still witness both good and bad crm when flying) and the scc should have been more 'forceful in the flight deck as this a/c was parked on stand therefore 'aviate navigate communicate' the first 2 are out of the equation! so would not have been dangerous at this point for scc to interupt pilots to make them aware, also FNC pax are generally much older many slow walkers little wonder the airbridge was getting congested slowing things down, we have a procedure for this situation its called a precautionary disembarkation and a PA for scc to make which avoids the 'E' word if you read the AAIB report her pa was very polite and started ladies & gentlemen!! not attention attention or the like!
Give the lady a break she made a mistake to quote basic crm 'to err is normal', no one is perfect although i have even recently flown with pilots who think they are, she didn't cause anyone to lose their life she was doing what she thought appropriate given the information she was recieving and from what she could see and smell in cabin, following the incident a thorough debrief was carried out and from that lessons were learned a clear notice was issued to cc to remind them of the criteria when 'they' can initiate the evacuation,and its also being covered on joint crm this winter, not so long ago we had a similar situation on an a/c in the final stages of boarding when a smell developed and then cabin rapidly filled with black smoke reducing visibility to nil and the crew used slides quite appropriatly to evacuate the pax as they wern't leaving via the airbridge quick enough, these situations can escalate in seconds and its understandable that the scc was concerned for the safety of her pax and crew.
I do believe in the UK we have a good safety culture not perfect but constantly developing and striving to be better, we learn from mistakes and to learn we need people to be open honest and accepting when incidents occur and changes need to be made, criticising and making sweeping statements about an individual doesnt help in these situations and remember when can all be armchair critics but we were not on that aircraft that evening!