BA may feel like they are between a rock and a hard place, but everyone was inconvenienced here, whereas they could have offloaded and re-booked the 50 or so passengers on other flights and taken off thereafter straight for London. At least that way, only the 50 or so off-loaded ones would have been inconvenienced. I believe that the operational challenges at FLR are well known, so I am not sure where the fault lies here. Should BA only book aircraft to 70% capacity, or are they right to book to full capacity in the knowledge that every now and then (is it only every now and then or is it actually quite frequently) they need to offload, or leave cargo behind? I don't have the answers, but it does seem as though FLR with the 320 should come with a health warning (and of course it doesn't) so I feel for those passengers.