It's indeed true that if you get an airportwide problem the relief crews get used up very rapidly indeed.
Why aren't checkin staff trained (and periodically refreshed) in manual procedures as part of their basic training ? I've been on the receiving end of this as well previously. For each pax, once they were identified, ALL the details on the BC were only started to be written out by hand, laboriously and slowly. A little bit of intelligent organisation would have worked wonders. Departure 1 hour late as a result.
Out of interest, anyone travelling Ryanair from Gatwick to Dublin that day, did they just close off at their usual cutoff time and leave the rest of the queue behind with no refund ?