Originally Posted by
gooselee
Disagree completely with this.
Hierarchy exists within flight crew for very good reasons and if the FA wants to question the captain's decision, that needs to be done privately, behind closed doors, after the fact (unless it's something truly exceptional like Denzel showing up and slamming some vodka before climbing in the left seat). It's not that the FAs don't know anything about the aircraft, it's just that the captain knows more, especially about its most vital systems.
I know nothing about how airplane HVAC works, so for all we know, something could have been wonky that resulted in the A/C pumping APU exhaust straight into the cabin, and the captain needed to empty the plane as quickly as possible without causing a panic.
TL;DR - If the captain says they need everyone off the plane, I'm going to get off the plane.
Yes, you are right about the hierarchy. But it goes both ways. Unless it is an emergency using the slides, the captain should confer with the cabin crew (or at least the lead FA) first before "yelling at passengers to leave the aircraft". What the captain did was totally unprofessional IMHO. Actually, unless it is an emergency, the lead FA or GA should make the announcement to deplane with instructions on what to do next (i.e please wait in the immediate gate area for announcement, line up at the podium for reassignment, etc.)