I fully accept that technical problems happen. That's life (although Finnair's MD-11 fleet doesn't really help here!). Basically the core problem did result from incompetent ground handling and poor communications (by the way this all occured at Finnair's home base), including:

- ridiculously optimistic revised departure times (e.g. faulty MD11 aircraft in Tampere, passengers in Helsinki, but still saying it would leave HEL in an hour!)
- unofficial comments from Finnair staff indicating the flight would most likely not go until the next morning, but Finnair just kept pushing back the departure time when it was clear it was not going to leave (i.e. to try to avoid paying for hotels)
- closing the business lounge at 3.30am and sending people to the transfer desk for more instructions, when the staff there did not know what was happening
- finally arranging hotels at 4.30am, but by then there was absolute chaos, so it took an age to get clear instructions from staff (they had also called the police in by that stage!)
- due to the late decision to arrange hotels only getting about 2 hours rest in the hotel before being called back to the airport, despite the fact they had not found a full crew for the flight, resulting in a further delay after the final 'confirmed' departure time

I am sure that Finnair was simply trying everything they could to avoid paying for hotels, in the hope that passengers would simply abandon their travel of their own accord.

And yes, a genuine apology would be nice, as long as Finnair were also sincere about improving their staff training and procedures in relation to handling such issues. My primary objective in lodging this complaint was to provide constructive criticism and try to get Finnair to improve their ways. But I am sure that I will now just receive a standard template response.