She is the one who started it by being stupid.
As far as the flight crew, I would be curious what the flight crew is required to do in these cases. I bet they are required to report everything like this to someone higher before they even check it out. These are govt regulations and corporate CYA rules. The flight crew likely had no choice in the matter. It probably takes 2 hours just to go through all the steps of some security procedure even if there is no threat.
Guess I'll weigh in on this one.
I don't think I am required to contact a supervisor or security or make a report to the police. I am required to fill out a company-only report when things happen that may "cause the general public to ask questions or be concerned."
We have a lot of latitude about "controlling" the customers. I would be hesitant to call for a supervisor or police in this case, unless the woman was making a big stink about it. If she was causing a scene I probably would have moved the woman to a different seat, or removed the woman from the plane, once I figured out what was going on.
I would say she overreacted, and she did, but not too much, really. Every airport has signs and announcements saying, "If you see something, say something." The current culture is to report on anything suspicious without actually trying to apply logic and reason. The vast majority of passengers check their brains with their bags. They don't have any idea of how an airline runs, nor do they care. All they care about is getting from A to B on time and cheaply. Delays, security issues, maintenance issues, etc. just don't matter to them. They are very much like children and cattle; they must be constantly directed and told what to do. That lady was told "see something, say something" by the TSA, CNN, Fox news, society as a whole, so she spoke up. She was never told to apply logic to her surroundings and think before speaking.
Another part of the problem is the Flight Attendant. Some of them have very big egos/attitudes when it comes to dealing with customers. It could be that the woman told a FA who then told the Captain. Maybe the FA expressed her own concern about the Math Bomber. If she did, then the Captain would have no choice but to call in supervisors and police. Basically, one or two people can get anyone kicked off a plane just by being concerned.