(London) Passengers and crew members of a British Airways plane, who were taken hostage in 1990 in Kuwait at the very start of the first Gulf War, announced Tuesday that they would sue the government British and the airline.
Coming from London and bound for Kuala Lumpur, flight BA149 stopped in Kuwait City on August 2, 1990, a few hours after the invasion by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq which subsequently led to the Gulf War.
All the passengers were grouped together for a few days in a nearby hotel, run by the Iraqi general staff, then transferred to Baghdad, and finally used as “human shields” on strategic sites.
Among the 367 passengers and crew members of the flight, some spent more than four months in captivity, placed on potential targets for the Western coalition.
In November 2021, the British government apologized for not alerting the company to the invasion.
“The victims are taking legal action so that the truth is fully revealed and that those responsible are held accountable for their actions and that compensation is paid,” wrote in a press release the firm McCue Jury & Partners, which represents passengers and members of crew taking legal action.
“In captivity, they (the hostages) were beaten, raped, victims of mock executions and starved,” says the firm, which represents more than 50 victims.
The latter told AFP that he expected the file to be filed in early 2024 before the High Court in London.
For lawyers, “evidence exists” on several elements of the case. “The government and British Airways knew that the invasion had already begun, but they still allowed BA149 to land,” they accuse.
“They did this because the flight was being used to introduce a team made up of former special forces and security services […] in Kuwait for a special military operation,” they also write.
“At the age of 22, I was sent to a war zone by a company and a government in whom I had complete confidence,” said Nicola Dowling, who was a crew member, in the press release. “For 33 years, we all had to live with the fallout as the horror of the event was swept under the rug by those who were complicit,” she says.