If they were running out of time they should have approached the desk and made themselves known to the staff. Many PAX do not have the confidence to do this though
But have the confidence to then blame everyone but themselves and sue who they think fit for their complete and utter lack of ability to think for themselves without someone holding their hand.....sorry I have no sympathy at all, if your flight take off time is fast approaching and you still haven't got through check in let alone security, you would do something about it. If the ground staff in this situation were saying Las Palmas, didn't these people think to question them about their flight, even if it did say Gran Canaria on their documentation? Sorry that would involve thinking and oh dear that's someone elses job.......?
Its not just confined to FR, I remember working on the ground at BHX in the early noughties and dealt with a woman who missed a BY flight to Paphos because she was sitting in the then Eurohub and quote words along these lines 'couldn't see it on the departure screens so thought i'd just wait until I did', a family that turned up for a flight at 2355 when in fact it had left at 1155 that morning and a hen party who turned up with no documentation and only knew the name of the hotel they were staying in but not the airline, flight number or destination. And don't even get me started on that 'Airline' programme that EZY (foolishly?) took part in.....Charge peanuts and you will get a few
as passengers.......