Did UK government know about Iraqi invasion of Kuwait before BA plane landed there?

In the summer of 1990, more than 350 passengers boarded flight BA149 at Heathrow. The plane was bound for Kuala Lumpur, but never made it that far. Instead it made a refuelling stopover in Kuwait City, just as Iraqi troops invaded in the first Gulf War.

The passengers were held for months as “human shields” by Saddam Hussein.

Today, many of them came together  as a new book was published, that claims the British government knew the invasion was underway before the plane landed, and that amongst its passengers were special forces on a secret mission.