Hopefully, others may have their own evidence in support of complaints and/or compensation claims for this flight, which may either confirm my recollection of events or correct me where I am wrong.
Background: BA172 was caught up in all of the flight planning issues on the evening of Mon 19 Dec 2022. BA172 had a complication in so much that it also had a medical emergency that ultimately led to the flight being cancelled.
ExpertFlyer.com Facts
The evidence I can find on expertflyer.com suggests these were the timings:
- JFK ESTIMATED TIME OF DEPARTURE 0330
- LEFT THE GATE 2359
- FLIGHT CANCELLED 0202
- FLT CNX
- ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL 1510 LHR
This doesn't match my recollection of events. The only time that I can confirm matches my recollection was the time of "Flight Cancelled" time, which indeed was about 02:02. Although I had noticed that the flight data reported (at the time) through flightaware.com was all over the place. At numerous times it suggested that the flight was on its flight back to Heathrow, when we hadn't even left the gate. This flight has now disappeared from flightaware.com. There is some info available on flightstats.com, which demonstrates the faulty data. If there is a more authoritative source of flight data, I'd appreciate any additional info.
My Recollection of Events
The key times that I recollect are:
- Announcement in the Chelsea Lounge that the flight was ready to board - approx 00:15.
- Boarding actually commenced around 00:45.
- I was one of the first onboard and I was settled into my seat at around 01:00.
- I think we pushed back at around 01:45.
- The flight was indeed cancelled at around 02:00.
- We didn't deplane until around 02:30.
Getting the Timings Right
What concerns me is that BA may be relying on some of this data to reject complaints and/or compensation claims on the basis that without the medical emergency, they would have been arriving into Heathrow with an acceptable level of delay, when that's complete nonsense. Where the figure of "Left the Gate" at 23:59 came from, who knows? I assume the "Estimated Time of Departure" and "Estimated Time of Arrival" may have been initial estimates assuming we could have recovered from our medical emergency and the crew were fit to fly us home. This estimate must have been prepared prior to 02:02 when the flight was finally cancelled. The crew couldn't safely fly us home due to them being out of hours.
The only reason that the crew were in this precarious position was due to the flight planning system issues that BA were ultimately responsible for. Without those issues, the crew would almost certainly have been within hours in order to recover and fly us home.
Conclusion
As I say, perhaps I was dreaming last night and I am more than happy for others to contradict my recollection of events, but it may be helpful to everyone for us to ensure we have a clear view of times, if we decide to submit complaints and/or compensation claims.