Originally Posted by
formeraa
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.)
Where does OP mention the captain yelling at pax to leave the aircraft? The closest description I read was "sternly ordered everyone off the plane" and that was only after the FA unilaterally countermanded his original instruction and then challenged him in front of pax, at which point he returned to the aircraft to repeat his original instruction (I admit I may have been a bit ticked off, too, if I were in his shoes).
And nobody on this board knows if there actually was an emergency on board, or even if the captain thought something bad was about to happen and was trying to act as quickly as possible.
There are any number of scenarios that could actually be at play here. At worst, the FA was insubordinate, acting out of turn, and complicating an emergent safety situation. At best, the FA was insubordinate and as unprofessional as the captain, depending on the exact circumstances and how he addressed the pax.
I'm not saying that this captain or any other airline pilots are perfect. But if a captain and FA are disagreeing on something regarding the airplane they're about to operate, I'm going to side with the captain.