UK: BA flight not informed of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — More than 300 British Airways passengers and crew could have been spared their months-long hostage ordeal in 1990 in Kuwait if Britain’s Foreign Office had informed the airline that Iraq had commenced its invasion of its oil-rich Persian Gulf neighbor. According to newly disclosed files Tuesday, the British ambassador to Kuwait warned the Foreign Office that Iraqi forces had crossed the border an hour before Flight BA149 touched down in Kuwait for refueling early on Aug. 2, 1990. That information was not passed on to to the airline, which was thereby not able to divert the flight. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it is “unacceptable” that it has taken so long for the truth to come out.