I was scheduled to fly on BA209 LHR to MIA on Friday 23rd Jan which was cancelled at boarding time. Submitted a claim for UK261 to BA and claim response back was:

"Your claim for compensation has been refused because the aircraft suffered damage as a result of a lightening strike. The aircraft experienced a lightning strike whilst operating the previous flight. As a result of this, mandatory inspections had to be carried out. These generally take around four hours and have to be completed before the aircraft can operate. During the inspections, damage to the aircraft was found, which meant repairs had to be carried out before the aircraft could operate."

As noted in prior posts on lightning strikes, it seems to me that it is a commercial decision for BA to run its operation in such a way that it has no excess capacity to substitute an aircraft at its home base. Assume I would need to pursue CEDR if I want to continue this claim? Any other recent experience with BA or CEDR with this event type?

Also, interesting spelling in the BA message - 'lightening strike' - unscheduled offloading of catering mid-flight? :-)

Thanks!