Imagine boarding a flight thinking you’re heading on holiday, but instead you get taken hostage by Saddam Hussein. It might sound far-fetched, but in August 1990 this really happened to the passengers and crew of BA Flight 149. Journalist Stephen Davis has been reporting on this extraordinary story for the past three decades. This series features the hostages themselves - the men, women and children used as human shields by the Iraqi regime. It also features voices from the world of politics and intelligence agencies who were active during the crisis, to put the human stories in a wider context.
At the heart of the series is a key question - why was the plane allowed to land at all, putting so many lives at risk? Was it a terrible accident, or was there a political objective? Either way, the lives of the human shields themselves have been forever changed, and they are still living with the consequences.
Since launching on February 7th 2022, the series has had over 300,000 downloads (up to the time of writing). Some selected listener reviews include: “This is an incredible piece of journalism…listened to 7 episodes in a day as I was so engrossed”; and “A gripping tale told beautifully and bravely by the victims”.
Ultimately this series aims to give the human shields a platform to tell their story - a story that has been buried over the decades.
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Imagine boarding a flight thinking you’re heading on holiday, but instead you get taken hostage by Saddam Hussein. It might sound far-fetched, but in August 1990 this really happened to the passengers and crew of BA Flight 149. Journalist Stephen Davis has been reporting on this extraordinary story for the past three decades. This series features the hostages themselves - the men, women and children used as human shields by the Iraqi regime. It also features voices from the world of politics and intelligence agencies who were active during the crisis, to put the human stories in a wider context.
At the heart of the series is a key question - why was the plane allowed to land at all, putting so many lives at risk? Was it a terrible accident, or was there a political objective? Either way, the lives of the human shields themselves have been forever changed, and they are still living with the consequences.
Since launching on February 7th 2022, the series has had over 300,000 downloads (up to the time of writing). Some selected listener reviews include: “This is an incredible piece of journalism…listened to 7 episodes in a day as I was so engrossed”; and “A gripping tale told beautifully and bravely by the victims”.
Ultimately this series aims to give the human shields a platform to tell their story - a story that has been buried over the decades.
What must it have felt like to be a child hostage? Stephen hears the remarkable tale of one of the youngest captives, and also asks how the Flight 149 family members left behind coped with the ordeal.
British Airways gave us the following statement: "Our hearts go out to all those caught up in this shocking act of war just over 30 years ago, and who had to endure a truly horrendous experience. The records (released by the Government last year) confirmed British Airways was not warned about the invasion."
The Foreign Office released a statement in 2021 that said: “On 1 of August the British Embassy in Kuwait told the local British Airways office that while flights on 1 August should be safe, subsequent flights were inadvisable”. It then repeated a previous statement to say: “the Government at the time did not attempt in any way to exploit the flight by any means whatever”.
Coming January 2023: The Secret History of The Estonia. A tale of secrets, smuggling and spies and why 852 people died on a ferry. Stephen investigates the mystery behind Europe's worst peacetime shipping disaster since the Titanic.
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The Secret History of Flight 149
Imagine boarding a flight thinking you’re heading on holiday, but instead you get taken hostage by Saddam Hussein. It might sound far-fetched, but in August 1990 this really happened to the passengers and crew of BA Flight 149. Journalist Stephen Davis has been reporting on this extraordinary story for the past three decades. This series features the hostages themselves - the men, women and children used as human shields by the Iraqi regime. It also features voices from the world of politics and intelligence agencies who were active during the crisis, to put the human stories in a wider context.
At the heart of the series is a key question - why was the plane allowed to land at all, putting so many lives at risk? Was it a terrible accident, or was there a political objective? Either way, the lives of the human shields themselves have been forever changed, and they are still living with the consequences.
Since launching on February 7th 2022, the series has had over 300,000 downloads (up to the time of writing). Some selected listener reviews include: “This is an incredible piece of journalism…listened to 7 episodes in a day as I was so engrossed”; and “A gripping tale told beautifully and bravely by the victims”.
Ultimately this series aims to give the human shields a platform to tell their story - a story that has been buried over the decades.
