ALBAWABA - Several passengers and crew members of a British Airways (BA) flight to Kuwait in 1990, during Saddam's invasion of the Gulf country, are suing the airlines and the UK government for complicity in the captivity situation they were held in for months.
The claimants said that the UK government and BA were aware of the invasion taking place as the flight was on its way to the layover in Kuwait before making its way to the final destination in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The claim also accuses the UK government of secretly using the flight to transport special operations teams for deployment in the Gulf country "regardless of the risk this posed to the civilians onboard".
The Guardian reported that passengers and crew aboard were held captive for up to five months, during which they were subjected to torture, rape, mock executions, starvation, and other abusive practices.
In 2021, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary at the time, acknowledged that the government had concealed the warning for decades. This was after records revealed to the National Archives that the British ambassador in Kuwait had alerted the UK Foreign Office to the invasion's progress prior to the landing of flight BA149.
Nicola Dowling, 56, was a cabin crew member on aircraft BA149. She said she was used as a human shield during her two months in Kuwait and stated, "Not being believed and denied justice all these years has been hideous".
"It was all very well for Thatcher to say Saddam Hussein is hiding behind women and children. She bloody well sent us in there and presented us to him on a plate for him to use. She was as complicit in this as he was, as was BA," she added.
Matthew Jury, the managing partner of McCue Jury & Partners LLP, which is acting for the claimants, said: "The victims and survivors of flight BA149 deserve justice for being treated as disposable collateral" Jury stated.
"Her Majesty’s government and BA watched on as children were paraded as human shields by a ruthless dictator, yet they did and admitted nothing. There must be closure and accountability to erase this shameful stain on the UK’s conscience".
