British Airways Flight 149

Flight 149 was operated by a Boeing 747-136 with the manufacturer serial number 19764/107 and aircraft registration G-AWND. Its engine model was the Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A and its aircraft name was Coniston Water. The pilot-in-command of the Heathrow-Kuwait leg was Captain Richard Brunyate, supported by pilot Senior First Officer Richard Paul Stanley Houselander, while the cabin crew were overseen by Cabin Service Director Clive Earthy. Peter Clark had been due to take over as captain for the Kuwait-Madras leg. ==Background==

At 19:05 BST (18:05 GMT) on 1 August 1990, The flight had a scheduled stopover at Kuwait City; however, this was not cancelled or changed despite media reports of the worsening political situation in the region. Kuwait's larger neighbor, Iraq, had issued demands for territory to be surrendered to its control and had been staging a military buildup on the border between the two nations for weeks. During the delay at Heathrow, the flight crew requested up-to-date reports on the situation in Kuwait and were told nothing untoward was happening despite news of growing tension. Shortly after the flight departed, the crew radioed ahead for another report, speaking to both Kuwaiti air traffic control (ATC) and British Airways Flight 148, a Lockheed Tristar which had departed from Kuwait earlier. Both claimed that the situation at Kuwait International Airport appeared normal. At 07:30 AST (04:30 GMT), both the crew and passengers who had been on board Flight 149 were escorted from the terminal by the Iraqi army and transported by bus to the airport's onsite hotel. As a consequence of its destruction, British Airways was able to collect on the airliner's insurance. ==Immediate reaction==

In the days that followed, British Airways expressed its outrage at Flight 149's situation. Very quickly, there was considerable public controversy over whether the British government would have been able to intervene to avoid Flight 149's detention, as well as when had it become aware of the invasion of Kuwait. However, passengers on board BA 149 reportedly heard gunfire and tank activity during their layover in Kuwait City and a member of the inbound crew also claimed to have heard "loud bangs" whilst being ferried from the airport to their hotel; Thatcher also attributed the invasion to an earlier point in time in her memoirs. British Airways and the Foreign Office have both claimed that Flight 149 had landed in Kuwait two hours following the start of the invasion. ==Detention of passengers==

After leaving the aircraft, all the passengers and crew were captured on the ground by Iraqi forces who had overrun Kuwait City. The majority of the detained passengers were initially transferred to the airport hotel within the boundaries of the airport until the crew of BA 149 negotiated for everyone to be moved to the Regency Hotel where British Airways crew and staff flying into Kuwait were routinely based. The crew of BA 149 and some of the passengers unsuccessfully tried asking the British Embassy to be evacuated from the country. Hostages later said they had witnessed various atrocities during their detention, such as attacks made upon Kuwaiti citizens by Iraqi forces; Another hostage, David Fort was injured after an Iraqi guard pushed him down a flight of stairs. A small number of passengers and crew managed to escape and were sheltered with help from Kuwaiti resistance fighters. During mid-December 1990, the last of the remaining American and British hostages were released by Iraq. One passenger from BA 149, a Kuwaiti national (later described in various reports as a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family or a security director) was listed as being murdered by Iraqi soldiers. None of the other hostages were intentionally killed by Iraqi troops. ==Investigation==

Several court actions were raised by passengers against British Airways in respect of Flight 149, often accusing the airline of negligence by continuing to land in Kuwait hours after the invasion, as well as for loss of property. On 15 July 1999, a group of French passengers were awarded damages from British Airways valued at £2.5 million; separately, the airline also chose to settle compensation claims filed on behalf of US passengers. During October 2006, several of the former hostages called for an independent public inquiry into allegations that Flight 149 had not been diverted by the British government due to the flight playing a role in a state intelligence operation. Some passengers accused British Airways of using Flight 149 as an attempt to evacuate their staff from Kuwait. However, BA personnel in Kuwait were not instructed to board Flight 149 and the inbound crew left for their hotel once the flight had landed. ==In popular culture==

Black Box 149 is a play which tells a story about the grounding of this flight with the main character being the pilot. The hostage crisis is the focus of the 2025 Sky television documentary Flight 149: Hostage of War. ==See also==