To evacuate or disembark.
With the recent event at LGW with the Virgin 330 it got me looking into the books and thinking about the procedure.
At what point would you come to the decision to order an evacuation.
Here is my train of thought.
Inflight smoke warning, complete ECAM leading to LAND ASAP.
Head to a suitable airport for landing (brief the cabin crew for the return, that after landing they should expect "attention crew on station" and to be in their positions but not to open any doors without further commands from the FD.
Allow the fire service to inspect the hold (with the hold door closed) using thermal image equipment.
If the result was no sign of anything untoward then disembark the passengers via steps.
If the fire service reported heat or there was signs of smoke on the aircraft or outside - then I would order an evacuation.
I think my thoughts are inline with Airbus procedures (as they use the word evacuate and disembark in their FCOM, ECAM and QRH so obviously differentiating between the two)
Anyone do it differently?
I can see the potential in these circumstances for a cabin initiated evacuation either by crew or passengers. As opposed to awaiting instructions from the FD.
* I'm not asking specifically about the VS flight as at this stage we don't know what the crew were presented with in terms of exact information from the fire service and or any signs of smoke.