Georgeablehowloveindia - if there was no case to answer on the part of BA, BCal, Pan Am and TWA, how come they shelled out several hundred million dollars between them rather than adopting a perfectly reasonable - assuming they were indeed innocent - "sue and be damned" attitude?
You're right though about the sycophantic managers - one in particular springs to mind.
He had indeed squared the banks - led by Midland Bank, which owned the Clydesdale, his bankers. MDFC and GE had agreed to back additional loans to smooth out the cashflow problem caused by a whisper campaign started by BA - telling travel agents that the company was going to go bust (which affected bookings and therefore cashflow) and saying that Laker had to pay cash for fuel, catering and airport services - which wasn't the case. They did the same with Air Europe, Dan Air and Virgin Atlantic.