Kiwi journalist on what really happened to BA Flight 149 - a podcast by RNZ

A new book by a New Zealand journalist claims the British and US governments tried to cover up the reason why a British Airways flight landed in Kuwait just as Iraqi forces invaded the country in 1990, which led to the capture of the passengers and crew - many of whom were used as human shields. Flight 149 with 367 passengers and 18 crew flew from Heathrow bound for Kuala Lumpur on August 2nd 1990, with stopovers scheduled in Kuwait and Chennai in India. But the plane never made it back out of Kuwait - it landed just as Iraqi forces invaded. Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein had made his hostilities toward Kuwait well-known and the military buildup had been happening for weeks - so why was a commercial flight allowed to land in what was so obviously about to become a war zone? In his new book Operation Trojan Horse, Kiwi investigative journalist Stephen Davis digs deep into the presence of nine British intelligence agents on board the flight - a team of so-called black ops - who were on a mission to gain intelligence about Saddam's troop movements. He says this was the reason the plane had to land, resulting in the months-long ordeal for the hostages. Kathryn talks to him about what he's labelled a cover-up by the British government, and how it's renewed calls from the surviving passengers and crew of the flight for the release of the official investigation into what happened.

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