PASSENGERS on a British Airways flight taken hostage by Saddam Hussein are to demand a public inquiry following new claims that the plane was used as a “Trojan horse” to transport British undercover agents to Kuwait on the eve of the first Gulf war.

Some of the passengers and crew of BA flight 149 were held by the former Iraqi dictator for almost five months and used as “human shields” at chemical and military installations to deter allied bombers during Operation Desert Storm.

A new documentary will claim that Margaret Thatcher’s government allowed the BA jet to land in Kuwait in August 1990 despite the fact that Iraqi troops had crossed into the country.

For many years there has been speculation that up to a dozen special forces troops boarded the civilian flight at the last minute and were to be delivered behind enemy lines to gather intelligence.

John Major, who succeeded Thatcher as prime minister, has strongly denied that any military personnel were on the aircraft and that passengers had knowingly been put at risk.

Now, however, some of the men involved in the mission are understood to have spoken about the operation for the first time to documentary film-makers.

It is claimed that they were part of a “black operations” unit put together by MI6 to track the deployment of Iraqi troops from inside Kuwait. Crucially, it is claimed, the men were all ex-special forces soldiers or former intelligence officers, making it possible for the government to distance itself from their activities.

The revelation has prompted anger among British passengers on the flight. Some of them will meet Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP, at Westminster tomorrow to call for an independent public inquiry.

Last night John Chappell, who was 14 at the time of the incident and subsequently suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, said: “I think there’s been a disgusting whitewash. I’m bitter that my own government can’t be honest about what it does.”

Chappell was among more than 350 passengers on flight 149 — including about 140 Britons — when it left London for Madras, India, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on August 1.

The plane landed to refuel at Kuwait airport early the next morning. The documentary, made by Blakeway Productions for the BBC and the Discovery Channel in America, is expected to claim that Iraqi troops had moved into Kuwait while the flight was still in the air and that it could have been diverted elsewhere.

This contradicts what Thatcher told the Commons at the time. “The British Airways flight landed, its passengers disembarked and the crew handed over to the successive crew . . . this all took place before the (Iraqi) invasion,” she said.

All the passengers did get off the aircraft, but with the Iraqis now in control of the airport, they were seized. One BA stewardess was raped by Iraqi soldiers, it was reported at the time. Many passengers were later taken to strategic locations in Kuwait to act as human shields, while a smaller number were sent to places in and around Baghdad, including a nuclear-enrichment plant.

They were among hundreds of westerners held against their will by Saddam. The plight of the human shields was encapsulated by Stuart Lockwood, 5, the son of expatriate workers in Kuwait, who was shown on Iraqi television being patted on the head by the tyrant.

The new documentary will claim that the undercover agents on BA149 evaded capture and went on to provide valuable intelligence that helped the allies win the first Gulf war.

BA, which has always denied wrongdoing, was ordered to pay more than £5m in damages to French passengers on board the flight following two court cases in Paris. However, none of the Britons on BA149 has received compensation.

The Foreign Office said: “The government’s position has already been outlined to parliament and we have a long-standing policy of not discussing intelligence matters.”

A spokesman for Major said: “Sir John would never knowingly mislead parliament.”

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