Hi,
Just had my claim for compensation under EU261 rejected by BA. BA1421 BHD-LHR last Tuesday (12 March) was cancelled. Thankfully I wasn't traveling over to London for a flying duty. The incoming aircraft (BA1420) suffered a lightening strike on approach and needed checked. The captain came into the lounge and stated it should take around 2 hours to do so and that BHD had agreed to extend its curfew. Just before 9pm he came back to advise that the engineer needed to check the roof of the aircraft and to do so, the engineer had to use a cherry picker, but due to high winds he was unable to do so. By this stage the night stopping aircraft had arrived and the captain went onto explain that he had asked the company if the crew could operate that aircraft, however he was told no and the flight was cancelled. BA have stated the flight was damaged outside of their control no I am not eligible for compensation.
Just as a FYI I was rebooked (like a lot of the other passengers) on the BA1431 on 13 March - it suffered a catalogue of failures, inoperative APU, ground power unit failure, broken toilets, then allowing HBO passengers off and a slot delay. Instead of departing at 07.10 and arriving into LHR at 08.35 we departed at 10.00am and arrived at 11.15am.