rickair7777

The industry seems to have taken a half-step back from the "blow the doors instantly at the slightest hint of smoke or fire" mentality. The reason being is that injuries (and hence lawsuits) are very common during an evacuation, especially on bigger planes with high doors and many pax. People have been badly injured because a PACK made some smoke and an evac was triggered.

Tail-mount engines is less of a dilemma, there's little fuel back there and if you're pointed into the wind the smoke/fire should stay away from the people.

Wing-mounted engines are more of a dilemma...the fire is close to a lot of fuel and can turn very ugly very quickly, but if you blow the doors before the fire's out people could get incinerated if they go the wrong way. Do nothing, and you risk a worse scenario.

Also are you at a real airport airport with ARFF, or did you divert to the nearest stretch of pavement?

This one did look pretty scary to me, but maybe the crew couldn't see how bad it was. You'd think tower would have provided some insight. If tower told me they "see a little smoke" I'd probably run checklists and let ARFF take care of it. An agitated statement along the lines of "you're wing's on fire!" and I'd probably evac.

But maybe time to rethink...this clearly could have turned into a catastrophe if the fire-fighters hadn't been quick to arrive..