Funny to read about the opera stuff. People in the office next-to-me, in 2012, were OPERA people. We discussed a lot at that time, trying to understand how Lorentz invariance (and special relativity) should be modified to account for the new data. Of course, data was the issue, as you said (and a faulty cable :p)
In short, we must be careful with any finding and look for confirmation. This however does not prevent ourselves from looking for a nice explanation if the finding would be correct ;)
Man, you must be dealing with some pretty good physicists. Nice.
It must have been terrifying and exciting for the researchers at the time. Science is uncertainty and that's why I love it with all my heart.
We have these kinds of excitement appearing all the time. The last one, this morning: an excess in CMS data that is intriguing. The excess could stay, or disappear. But thinking about it is a good and healthy exercise.