I'm not a qualified pilot but if I sensed an evacuation was necessary and some unidentifiable person told me to hold off or not evacuate, I'd be backing my original judgement that evacuation is necessary if that person did not identify themselves within seconds.

Even if they did identify themselves and give a reasonable explanation, if I still thought evacuation was necessary I'd still back my judgement to do so (fire, smoke or fumes not visible to those outside the aircraft).

At the end of the day the Captain holds responsibility for the souls on board and the aircraft and the decision rests with them to make the best call they see warranted.

Injuries in an evacuation are unfortunate but a better result than a mass cremation.

Airlines need to back their technical crew to back their pilots in emergency, high pressure situations.

One day we will have cockpit and cabin CCTV fed back to the black boxes and a Captain not proactive could well see themselves to blame for lack of evacuation due to management and bean counter reprisal whilst not being around (along with pax) to even defend themselves in an investigation.

It's the Captain's responsibility to ensure the safety of their flight. It's management's responsibility to ensure the safety culture of an airline is first and foremost.

Pilot fired for doing his job
 

Lucky him, he's in the states and can easily exercise his legal rights. If he was flying for a low-cost carrier in Europe, he would be wasting his time (LOTS of time, and money) trying to sue the airline for firing him.

It’s my opinion that Capt. Kinzer was terminated to quell the pilot group, to silence the pilot group, to in a way ‘take one out’ to keep the pilots from reporting safety events, emergencies, those types of events.”

This is the problem pilots need to stick together,and grow some balls,but I can only dream.

It is not clear that Capt. Kinzer is getting any help from his fellow pilots.
He is posting in the comments to the Washington Star article linked by 'pcpmitch' and seems to be quite alone. That suggests Allegiant has little reason to worry about their pilots forming a group.

What is the opinion of FAA over such a matter? Surely they must be aware of it and can not ignore it?

The FAA would be reluctant to be seen as "meddling" in what's considered a civil employment case. However, the FAA responded by moving up a comprehensive audit of Allegiant's operations (CHEP audit) after this incident and others.

Allegiant's next CHEP audit wasn't due until 2018. Instead, FAA gave Allegiant an audit notice in March and FAA auditors were at Allegiant for three months from April through June of this year.

Allegiant passed the audit with only minor issues flagged and no enforcement actions required. Some of the issues were really minor like one training room apparently had its AC temperature set too low that it was found to be distracting. Allegiant had until this past Friday to address the issues and apparently they did so.

I can't speak for Allegiant pilots, but note that after a tough period they have just won their first union contract (CBA) including up to 30% pay raise and promised improvements to safety processes + culture.

Allegiant is also replacing their aging MD-80s and moving to an all-Airbus fleet by 2019. They recently placed an order for 12 brand new A320neos -- the first time in history they've purchased new aircraft.

So I think Allegiant pilots (now among the best paid in the industry) have room for optimism. They used safety as a "stick" during the contract process and now that concessions have been made it would not be in their benefit to criticize.

If I recall it was noted previously in this thread that Capt. Kinzer's suit was filed without involvement from Allegiant's union (Teamsters).

The Tampa Bay Times has published another hit piece on Allegiant Air.

In true tabloid tradition it starts:

Thousands of people flew Allegiant thinking their planes wouldn't fail. They were wrong. | investigations | Tampa Bay Times

Allegiant Air changes course after Times investigation, admits too many planes failed | Tampa Bay Times

A mea culpa from Maurice....

The case is now inching closer to a jury trial, scheduled to start on July 31, 2017 -- more than two years since the date of this incident.

It appears that the Captain's legal team wanted to depose Maurice Gallagher Jr. (CEO). Allegiant filed a motion to protect. For now the CEO is not required to provide a deposition unless there's evidence that he was involved / had the final say in the Captain's firing.