Flight 149
A Hostage Crisis, a Secret Special Forces Unit, and the Origins of the Gulf War
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
An “un-putdownable read” (Stephen Grey, author of Ghost Plane) that reveals the true story of a plane of unsuspecting passengers who landed in a war zone and were delivered to a murderous dictator
On August 1, 1990, Flight 149 was scheduled for its routine London-to-Kuala Lumpur run. But when the plane, carrying 385 passengers and crew, landed at a Kuwait airport to refuel that day, it was surrounded by Iraqi tanks and about to be bombed by fighter jets.
The passengers and crew were kept as hostages and suffered brutal treatment including violent attacks, sexual assaults, and mock executions. When the survivors were eventually released, they were never told why their plane landed in the middle of an invasion, or who a mysterious team of late arrivals on the flight might have been. Their story was overshadowed by the ensuing Gulf War. Until now.
In Flight 149, Stephen Davis draws on unique witness accounts from the hostages, and uncovers the lies and coverups orchestrated by the British secret service and CIA. This story reveals an astonishing misuse of intelligence that changed the course of history and forever altered the relationship between the West and the Middle East.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Davis debuts with a doggedly researched chronicle of an obscure yet consequential episode in the Gulf War. On August 1, 1990, a British Airways flight from London to Kuala Lumpur made a scheduled refueling stop in Kuwait, even though Iraqi forces had just invaded the country. Drawing on interviews with passengers and crew members, Davis documents reassurances from the British Foreign Office that the flight "could safely proceed," and the arrival, just before takeoff from Heathrow airport, of a group of "nine or ten muscular, clean-cut young men" who had a "military bearing." By the time the plane landed in Kuwait City, the airport was under attack from Iraqi forces, who detained most of the passengers and crew. They, along with other Westerners held hostage elsewhere in Kuwait and Iraq, were verbally and physically abused and used as human shields. Drawing on testimony from British and American intelligence sources, Davis contends that U.K. officials, at the request of the Bush administration, used Flight 149 to insert a team of covert operatives into the country (they managed to leave the airport before the other passengers were captured). Davis provides plenty of support for his allegations, and movingly documents the psychological impact of the hostages' ordeal. This investigation rings true.
