Yes BA/BAA did run tests. Talking to some of the Cabin Crew involved (i.e this is second hand) it seemed that on a least one test departure/arrival about month ago all the bags completely disappeared within the bowels of T5. After waiting for over 30 min at the belts the "crew" and "pax" were told that the baggage aspect of that particular trial was going to be ignored, they were then waved through immigration, and told "thanks very much, bye". I also understand this was not an isolated occurance during the trials...I'm sure management came up with a fix during the wash up - didn't they
Sadly having heard the stories of botched trials for a while now I don't think many of us outside the confines of Waterworld were not particularly surprised by yesterdays events..saddened yes, surprised, no. It may have helped if BA had thrown more manpower at the problem(s) but the operation has been cut back to the bone over the last few years and there is no "spare" in the system. There is no money in the pot to pay people to work the extra hours, and in the current climate very few people were prepared to give up their spare time for free.
I hope for the sake of our long suffering passengers that matters improve - quickly.