Over the 1990 Kuwait hostage crisis, passengers are suing the UK and British Airways

A law company warned on Monday that the British government and the airline are facing legal action from the passengers and crew of a British Airways flight that was kidnapped in Kuwait in 1990.

When BA flight 149 touched down in the Gulf state on August 2, that year—just hours after Iraq was invaded by Saddam Hussein, the plane was carrying passengers who were pulled off. The flight was headed for Kuala Lumpur.

During the first Gulf War, some of the 367 passengers and crew members were held captive for more than four months, sometimes serving as human shields to protect the troops of the Iraqi ruler from strikes by the West.

According to McCue Jury & Partners, 94 of them have launched a legal lawsuit at the High Court in London, charging BA and the British government with “deliberately endangering” citizens.

“All of the claimants suffered severe physical and psychiatric harm during their ordeal, the consequences of which are still felt today,” the law firm added.

The action claims that the UK government and the airline “knew the invasion had started” but allowed the flight to land anyway.

They did so because the flight was used to “insert a covert special ops team into occupied Kuwait,” the firm added.

“We were not treated as citizens but as expendable pawns for commercial and political gain,” said Barry Manners, who was on the flight and is taking part in the claim.

“A victory over years of cover-up and bare-faced denial will help restore trust in our political and judicial process,” he added.

Documents from the British government, made public in November 2021, showed that, prior to the aircraft’s landing, the UK ambassador in Kuwait notified London of reports of an Iraqi incursion; however, BA was not notified of this information.

There have also been allegations—refuted by the government—that London purposefully endangered passengers by sending undercover agents on the flight and delaying takeoff so they could board.

With regard to pending legal matters, the UK government declined to comment.

British Airlines has consistently refuted claims of incompetence, collusion, and dissembly.

The airline did not respond to a request for comment from AFP but said last year that the records released in 2021 “confirmed British Airways was not warned about the invasion.”

McCue Jury and Partners had announced in September its intention to file the suit, saying then that the hostages “may claim an estimated average of £170,000 ($213,000) each in damages.”

The French captives on board the flight were awarded 1.67 million euros by a French court in 2003, stating that British Airways had “seriously failed in its obligations” to them by landing the aircraft.

AFP