Imagine boarding a flight thinking you’re heading on holiday, but instead you get taken hostage by Saddam Hussein. It might sound far-fetched, but in August 1990 this really happened to the passengers and crew of BA Flight 149. Journalist Stephen Davis has been reporting on this extraordinary story for the past three decades. This series features the hostages themselves - the men, women and children used as human shields by the Iraqi regime. It also features voices from the world of politics and intelligence agencies who were active during the crisis, to put the human stories in a wider context.
At the heart of the series is a key question - why was the plane allowed to land at all, putting so many lives at risk? Was it a terrible accident, or was there a political objective? Either way, the lives of the human shields themselves have been forever changed, and they are still living with the consequences.
Since launching on February 7th 2022, the series has had over 300,000 downloads (up to the time of writing). Some selected listener reviews include: “This is an incredible piece of journalism…listened to 7 episodes in a day as I was so engrossed”; and “A gripping tale told beautifully and bravely by the victims”.
Ultimately this series aims to give the human shields a platform to tell their story - a story that has been buried over the decades.