Overall, I liked this book. I was born a few months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait happened, and such is the way of modern history curriculum, this event was never covered in any of my history classes. The author provided a well-rounded view of what happened right before and during the invasion from the passengers and crew of Flight 149, Westerners who worked and were subsequently stuck in the country in hiding, and the British and US governments.

My one relatively big criticism is the title. While yes, the book does heavily cover the passengers and crew of Flight 149 (but mainly just the passengers, not even much about the plane or flight path), I feel like the title gave the impression that the entire book would solely focus on this flight. It does not; the book, like I mentioned earlier, gives attention to the invasion itself, non-Flight 149 Westerners who were in Kuwait, government insight, AND the flight passengers, and all equally. So, I felt like a different title would've been more reflective of the content.

Flight 149: A Hostage Crisis, a Secret Special Forces Unit, and the Origins of the Gulf War is a tragic yet fascinating account of August 1, 1990's routine British Airways flight, filled with 386 passengers and crew, that was mysteriously cleared to land and refuel in Kuwait when a war had broken out. This resulted in a month long international hostage crisis.
Award winning investigative journalist Stephen Davis gives us a informative story after 30 years of investigation revealing the British and American governments gambled with the lives of those on the flight. British Airways 149 was used to transport a covert special operatives unit whose role was to gather intelligence. Once on the tarmac Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Forces seized the aircraft and took the passengers and crew hostage upending their lives forever.
With first hand passenger testaments, new observations from covert sources and disclosure from secret soldiers the author unravels the British and U.S. governments nefarious involvement in the ill-fated flight.
Highly Recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Perseus Books/Public Affairs for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

A very interesting story about an attack on a plane that I had never heard of. Would be a great read for anyone who is interested in plane incidents.

I was so pleased to be granted an ARC of this book because I wanted to learn more about Flight 149. Stephan Davis’ book is investigative journalist at its best. If you are a reader who appreciates history and true crime genres, this is a book well worth your time. Thank you, Stephan Davis, for your extensive research and for sharing it with the rest of us in this compelling read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is one of those situations where truth is stranger than fiction. There are more twists and turns and head-scratching moments than the best thriller author can compose. In 1990, British Airways flight 149, filled with 386 passengers heading for Kuala Lumpur, was tasked with landing in Kuwait to refuel before heading on the last leg of its journey. The plane landed but it never made it back into the skies.

Prior to landing in Kuwait that day neighboring Iraq, under the command of Saddam Hussein, had launched an invasion. The airport was seized. Passengers and crew where captured and the plane was mysteriously destroyed. The detainees were released at different times according to their nationality. Many detainees have bizarre, unusual, and even brutish tales to tell and conspiracies surrounding flight 149 have been recounted time and time again.

What really happened and why is still widely speculated. Who and what was on that plane that caused such a dire situation? Why was the plane manifest removed from the electronic database the day after the plane was captured? Why was the flight not diverted to Bahrain or other safe alternative destinations? After all these years, there are so many questions that have gone unanswered.

Author Stephan Davis excels in investigative journalism and story-telling skills making this a hard book to put down. I highly recommend Flight 149: A Hostage Crisis, a Secret Special Forces Unit, and the Origins of the Gulf War to history buffs, political science buffs, documentary fans and thriller aficionados.