That's what you would hope! She wanted to look for this on the aircraft, but BA staff ushered her off plane, and said to check for it in the baggage pick up area. She's an inexperienced flyer herself, and didn't have the confidence to push it with them, but realises she could have been more insistent. I'm wondering if BA had already checked all the other overhead areas, and privately suspected it had been taken deliberately (ie stolen), but didn't want to worry her, or maybe admit it at that point.