The BBC reported that documents released in November 2021 showed the Foreign Office was warned by the British ambassador in Kuwait that Iraqi forces had crossed the border an hour before the flight landed.
The information was never passed to BA, which was unable to divert the flight, according to the Foreign Office files released to Britain’s National Archives.
A BA spokesman said: “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.”
Davis maintains the plane landed for a fuel stop in Kuwait because it was taking a team of about 10 special forces troops into the war zone.
This has been continually denied by the British government. In a BBC report this week it the blame “lies entirely with the government of Iraq at the time”.
“The victims and survivors of flight BA149 deserve justice for being treated as disposable collateral,” Davis said.
Law firm McCue Jury and Partners released a statement calling for any potential passengers or crew members to contact the firm.
It said each hostage might claim an estimated average of £170,000 in damages (about NZ$356,000).
There were six New Zealanders on the flight in August 1990, only one of whom is still alive.
Davis said evidence from the National Archives – such as a government document with a partially obscured sentence that said there may have been defence section people on the flight – would be used in the court action.
A report by the British government was also uncovered. Its findings outlined 3500 documented war crimes experienced by 1700 hostages across Iraq and Kuwait.
“They commissioned the report and then promptly kept it secret for three decades,” Davis said.
Money was not a motivation for the victims taking legal action, he added.
“Imagine £170,000 for someone who was beaten or sexually assaulted.
“What these people would really like mostly is for a government minister to stand up and say: ‘Sorry, we got it wrong. Yes, we put a team on the plane, yes we dropped you in it, yes we lied about it all this time.’ ”
Davis said interviewing victims was a long process that involved building trust in relationships.
“It took years of negotiation to get one person from the secret team who was on the plane to be interviewed.”
He said trauma victims could switch from being unemotional to completely overwhelmed by a memory.
“In one of my interviews with [passenger] Barry Manners, he was talking very fluently and calmly about what had happened, and all of a sudden he started to shake and said: ‘I think I’m bleeding’.”
Davis’ book Operation Trojan Horse about flight BA149 was published in 2021.
“When you meet these people and see their pain and distress, you become very determined to try and get a result for them, and to get somebody to own up.”
Davis has recorded podcasts on Apple and Spotify, called The Secret History of Flight 149 and The Secret History of the Estonia (about a ferry that capsized in the Baltic Sea).
He is currently working on an investigation into a mysterious death in Antarctica, which will become a new podcast series.
“It’s also about how what you think about Antarctica and life there that is not true, and all the strange things that go on beneath the surface.”
Stephen Davis will speak at the Whanganui Literary Festival on September 30 from 1.30-2.30pm.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
