This kind of reminds me of something that happened a couple of months ago. Without going into specifics (again......sorry if he's reading), a flight from Gatwick was late departing (very late). The excuse given was "ATC", but it turned out to be a staff problem, as revealed by cabin crew at a later stage.
I guess as E73 puts is, perhaps sometimes it's easier to be economical with the truth. Especially when the pther party probably won't find out they have been blamed.