The wheels do grind slowly but I'd question whether this particular vehicle should ever have set off in the first place.

The material evidence we have thus far is:

• Flight cancellation: BA2938 scheduled departure 12:15 LGW-EDI
• Passengers rebooked onto the later BA2938, with scheduled departure 14:55
• BA2938 departed LGW at 15:24

Add to this anecdotal information

At 07:00, we can deduce seats were available for sale on the 0930 flight to EDI as poggs and family were invited to upsell their restricted ticket if they wished to move onto this earlier flight. Had BA staff known of an impending technical fault, one would assume they would have been beckoning pax onto the 09:30 flight. Apparently, this did not happen, so one can read at face value BA did not foresee a problem at this time.

At 11:55 BA announced the cancellation of the 2938. If the gate crew were correct in saying the aircraft allocated for EDI had at the eleventh hour been switched to cover a now inoperable aircraft allocated for the MAN, then again on face value this leads me to believe the problem was not a foreseen one. Should a judge request details on what caused the cancellation, I would think this question would be a relatively simple one for BA to answer. I believe under the conditions of the EU directive, the responsibility is placed on the operator to demonstrate sound reasons why it considered the circumstances extraordinary so I expect this would be a robust reply.

I do sympathise with poggs and family. After waiting out a 6 hour connection, then to be informed you need to wait a further 2hr 35mins would make my heart sink. So poggs, I ask of you, upon objective review of the events you experienced, the information you are now in possession of relating to what caused the cancellation, is a day in court really going to give you closure?