Interestingly if my memory serves me correctly, BA lost the libel cases, but there was never a verdict on the alleged dirty tricks themselves. BA people who were close to the alleged events didnt recognise them as real and were astonished that the airline did not contest them , particularly when it was admitted that some of the filming was " reconstruction" rather than live. The actuality seems to be that King and Marshall, followed by Ayling had no stomach for continuing the fight as it was expensive, time consuming and debilitating in
PR terms and distracted BA people from the task of running the business. Like them or not, BAs track record worldwide for British aviation, both pre and post privatisation has been remarkable and it is unlikely that any alternative could have done better...... and no, they did not receive free aircraft on privatisation.