It seems to me, from your post, that the whole of Heathrow just upped and abandoned their posts that day and left everybody to fend for themselves on a hugely difficult day. I am certain that South African Airways would have handled it all differently with only a handful of flights a day.
Atco-matic .... you denigrate all the fine work done by BA staff that day. You of all people should realise the total disruption that can happen on a day like that, but I don't see the industry shouting at ATC for stacking them and denying them their requested FL with all the fuel problems that can cause.
Oh, and of course, Mr. Bransons crew deliberately slid off the runway to further screw things up. I bet they had a good laugh about it in the Crew room later.
And before you accuse me of being BA Ground Staff - I am not, but I have spent a lifetime in the airline industry, both at LHR and overseas, and guess what..... when there is disruption at JED, DHA, POM, CNS, SYD or ATH, the same problems occur and ground staff are overwhelmed at the sheer volume of what hits them. They take a lot of stick from passengers who don't know, what the problems are. Why should they.?? As far as they are concerned all the resources that are stretched beyond limits should be allocated to them alone. If you dont like this attitude, then I am sorry. It comes of more than 35 years of dealing with the sort of problems you describe. I sympathise....I care....and I just do the best I can, which is what the vast majority of people at LHR did that day. I have faced far far worse. I have offloaded baggage due strikes, I have cleaned aircraft, I have checked pax in, I have ramp ratted and much more, and I do NOT consider the staff at BA today to be any different. So, Atco, to end my rant, I said, and I mean it, that I am sorry your friends had a bad experience, but so did thousands and thousands of people that day, on the roads, in the air and on the ground. It was bad, frustrating, and worse, but please don't take it out on the Ground staff who simply do their best.
If you want to discuss it, send me a private Email and I will give you my phone number....as long as you promise to be calm about it, otherwise, try and understand, as you, an Industry professional, should.