Originally Posted by
M Nix
So either BA are lying now, or they were lying through their teeth on the actual evening (which I doubt, as if the plane had been diverted due to a bird strike, surely they would have cancelled the flight straight away, and not kept us hanging around the airport mysteriously for hours).
I'm not saying that BA are not lying. But your assumption hightlighted above also isn't necessarily valid.
You say that an aircraft was available, but it seems that what was missing was a crew to operate it. It could be that the crew that was on the bird-struck plane were candidates for operating your flight, just as it seems that the delayed crew from Dublin were also candidates for your flight.
A bird strike doesn't necessarily mean that the plane has to be taken out of service - that they diverted just meant they wanted to get on the ground and take a look. That flight may have been able to continue onwards - though delayed - though it appears that was not possible in this case.