This sounds like an absolute horror story, but I suspect there may be more to this than meets the eye. You should file a complaint with the CAA. The address is here:
Send your complaint to:
Passenger complaints
Civil Aviation Authority
CAA House
45-59 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6TE
Or call: 020 7240 6061.
However, you should first of all attempt to resolve the issue with BA. You might want to strip down the key elements of your complaint. The simple fact of having one of the party having a passport which expires in less than 6 months is sufficient reason to deny that person boarding and in this case one of the parents. Airlines can be fined huge sums for failing to ensure entrants have proper documentation and the guidelines on both the website and the Foreign Office advise against travelling on a passport with less than six months validity. Therefore, you have no complaint about this particular action.
Where you may have a legitimate complaint is
a. the way you were subsequently treated and
b. the refusal to allow some of the party to travel.
Let's start with b. This is more complicated with families than it seems. The airline may take the view, particularly on the Tel Aviv route, that the baggage being paired with the passenger rules would be violated if the family were broken up, as it is unlikely that each bag was linked to a specific adult and child. For this reason, they may well operate a policy that the whole family must be denied travel if any one of the party does so. There has actually been a case on the LHR to Tel Aviv route, where a fiancee attempted to murder his girlfriend and the rest of the plane by packing a bomb in his fiancee's case and not travelling with her.
So then we get to their treatment of you, which sounds callous and heartless. It is not unusual for people to make mistakes such as yours. Often the airlines will book the passengers on the following days flights, so that you can organise an emergency replacement passport. However, in this case, you were banned from the airline permanently and the police were called. Are you sure you didn't argue your case a bit too vigorously? Could your emotional response to the situation have stepped over the line?
If it did not, you are pursuing the right remedy. Use Data Protection Act to request copies of the CCTV. You must request this in writing and send £10 to cover costs. You may also request a copy of the police report into the incident. If you did not behave unreasonably, BA have treated you very harshly and I think you should take it further. It is rare to be permanently banned from an airline... you should demand to know why.
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