London: Passengers and crew members of a British Airways flight were held captive in Kuwait in 1990. Now the passengers of the plane have started legal action against the UK government and the airline. Iraq’s then leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Hours after the invasion, BA Flight 149 was taken off when it landed in the Gulf state on August 2 in 1990 en route to Kuala Lumpur.
Some of the 367 passengers and crew members spent more than four months in captivity. They were used as human shields to protect the Iraqi dictator’s troops from attacks by the US and its allies during the first Gulf War.
Accusation against the UK government
94 of the passengers have filed a civil claim in the High Court of London, accusing the UK government and BA flight of deliberately putting citizens at risk. This information has been given by McCue Jury & Partners.
At the same time, the law firm says about this, ‘All the claimants suffered physical and mental damage during this situation, the consequences of which are still felt today.’ The complaint further claims that the UK government and the airline knew that the invasion had begun but still allowed the plane to land.
Was there any conspiracy by London behind this?
In 2003, a French court ordered the payment of 1.67 million euros to the French hostages of the BA flight. For information, let us tell you that British government files released in November 2021 revealed that the UK ambassador to Kuwait had informed London about the report of Iraqi infiltration before the flight landed, but this message was not passed on to BA. There have also been claims, which the government has denied, that London deliberately put passengers at risk by using the flight to deploy an undercover spy and delayed the flight to allow them to board the plane.
