The action claims the British government and airline “knew the invasion had begun”
London:
Passengers and crew on a British Airways flight who were taken hostage in Kuwait in 1990 have taken legal action against the British government and the airline, a law firm said on Monday.
People on BA Flight 149 were taken off the Kuala Lumpur-bound plane when it landed in the Gulf state on August 2 that year, hours after then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded the country.
Some of the 367 passengers and crew spent more than four months in captivity, including as human shields against Western attacks on the Iraqi dictator’s forces during the first Gulf War.
Ninety-four of them have filed a civil claim in the High Court in London, accusing the British government and BA of “deliberately endangering” citizens, according to McCue Jury & Partners.
“All plaintiffs suffered serious physical and psychiatric harm during their ordeal, the effects of which are still being felt today,” the law firm added.
The action claims the British government and airline “knew the invasion had begun” but allowed the flight to land anyway.
They did this because the flight was being used to “deploy a covert special ops team into occupied Kuwait,” the company 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 participating in the claim.
“A victory over years of cover-up and outright denial will help restore confidence in our political and judicial process,” he added.
British government files released in November 2021 revealed that the British ambassador to Kuwait informed London of reports of an Iraqi incursion before the flight landed, but the message was not passed on to BA.
There have also been claims, denied by the government, that London knowingly endangered passengers by using the flight to deploy undercover officers and delay the take-off so they could board.
The British government declined to comment on ongoing legal issues.
British Airways has always denied allegations of negligence, conspiracy and cover-up.
The airline did not respond to a request for comment from AFP, but said last year that data released in 2021 “confirmed that British Airways had not been warned of the invasion”.
McCue Jury & Partners had announced in September its intention to file the lawsuit, saying at the time that the hostages could “seek an estimated average damages of £170,000 ($213,000) per person.”
In 2003, a French court ordered BA to pay 1.67 million euros to the flight’s French hostages, saying the company had “seriously breached its obligations to them” by landing the plane.
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