This is the chilling and untold true story of the British, French, German and North American victims of an alleged MI6/Special Forces mission that used a British Airways civilian flight, as a Trojan Horse on the eve of the first Gulf War on August 1st 1990.

The covert mission was an extraordinary gamble that went badly wrong, delivering 367 passengers into the hands of Saddam's Republican Guard.

When the passengers and crew of British Airways flight 149 touched down in Kuwait City en route from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of August 2nd 1990, their lives would never be the same again. Within hours they became hostages of Saddam Hussein's invading Iraqi army and were detained for months in horrific conditions as part of Saddam's "human shield" programme. Some were released and reunited with their families, through the humanitarian missions of Jesse Jackson and former Prime Minister Edward Heath, but others remained captive for nearly five months.

Many of the passengers have never overcome the trauma of their experience. Several have committed suicide; many have split from their partners and, a decade and a half later, all still live in the shadow of their ordeal. This is their story.

Highlights from the Farnborough International Airshow (2004). Featuring F16, Hercules C-130J, UAV, Gulfstream G4, B1B, Nighthawk, Airbus A340-600, Airbus A380, Boeing 787, SAA Boeing 747-400, B-52, RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Eurofighter Typhoon, SAAB Gripen, Harrier, Spitfire, Super Hornet, Red Arrows

This World pieces together the jigsaw of "extraordinary rendition", the alleged illegal CIA transfer of terror suspects to secret prisons in Europe.

In far Eastern Poland in 2002 and 2003 strange planes landed on an old disused runway in a secluded forest. Nine times.

Was Poland a staging point in the network of secret prisons established by the United States in their "extraordinary rendition" programme? Did these mystery flights bring al-Qaeda suspects to Poland?

Poland is not alone: it is alleged that the CIA flew their planes to 29 different countries; that there were 300 CIA landings in Europe alone, 80 in Britain.

So did European governments know about these mystery flights?