Thanks guys for the heads up wrt Airbus & Indigo specifics and (
VijayMallya), yes, I'm a Boeing chap through and through (
and the B737 doesn't have over-wing slides, it has flaps) but
vive la différence, eh?!
... and, hands-up for a "doh!" moment on my part, wherein if I myself had looked more carefully at that video, I'd have seen the over-wing slides being deployed.
takeoffpowerset: The Cabin Crew are usually trained to do a visual check that the area outside of the aircraft is clear of obstructions & hazards, before they will open the door. However, in this instance and wrt hazards, it's likely that ground crew would have been in the process of bringing steps up to the doors on the left hand side of the aircraft (
they being unaware that an emergency evacuation was imminent), and for the Cabin Crew looking out from inside the aircraft, they might well see the steps in the way but they might not have seen any smoke?!... basically it's much to do with the timing of the event, i.e. a normal deplaning was being implemented by the ground crew, but it was then superseded with an emergency evacuation initiated from inside the aircraft.
One might add that the old-style evacuation call, which typically went along the lines of "
This is the Captain. This is an Emergency. Evacuate, Evacuate; Hazard on the [Left] / [Right]" has, in many airlines, been changed to remove the statement about which side a hazard is located, much on the premise that a lot of people seemingly can't tell their left from their right, and / or get confused, and that a look outside of the window is often a better indication of just where a hazard is actually located. Not sure what call is made by Indigo in this respect, i.e. whether or not there is any inclusion, within the evacuation announcement, of which side might be hazardous, and / or if this did (
or did not) have any baring on which doors were opened (
or not) ?!