If the first officer went sick, BA would then have to fly someone over to take over the flight. Once this person had travelled the 8 hours, they would need a full rest period, before taking on the return flight. This would explain the delay to 3am. I am no fan of the airlines, but sometimes these things happen and are just unavoidable. No airline can just have "spare crew" sitting all around the world just in case someone pulls a sickie.
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