Incident Overview
An incident occurred while an aircraft was taxiing for takeoff, involving a smoke-in-the-cabin event caused by an overheated air conditioning pack. A male passenger panicked and shouted, "Open the door!"
Sequence of Events
The lead flight attendant misinterpreted this instruction as coming from the cockpit and opened an exit door. Passengers, observing this action, interpreted it as clearance to open another door and began to evacuate. A total of 21 passengers evacuated before the captain intervened and stopped the evacuation.
Crew Staffing Context
At the time of the incident, two flight attendants were on strike, and the flights were being staffed by supervisors and new hires. The lead flight attendant on this flight was a supervisor who had no recent day-to-day cabin supervision experience.