The new(ish) Euro passenger charter is extremely punitive towards airlines regarding delays and cancelled flights. Its now fairly standard practice for a crew to launch (after checking with ops) knowing that their destination is out of limits (with the proviso that they carry an extra 'in limits' alternate up their sleeves). Although ultimitely more expensive in this case, most of the time ops will choose to despatch the schedule knowing there's a fair chance it will get in following a short hold. Diversions due weather are still relatively rare compared to landings at destinations.
And as for suggesting the crew did not check their met.........shame on you.
