All 143 Aboard Die in Jet Crash Off Bahrain

A Gulf Air jet on a flight from Cairo slammed into the Persian Gulf on Wednesday night about four miles short of Bahrain International Airport, killing all 143 people aboard.

U.S. Navy helicopters and ships based in Bahrain joined rescue efforts, and emergency workers reported early today that they had recovered all of the bodies, including those of 36 children and the crew of eight.

Ibrahim Abdullah Hammar, Bahrain’s undersecretary for civil aviation, told a news conference at the airport in Manama, the capital, that the flight data recorder, which provides crucial information about the plane’s performance, had been recovered. The search continued for the cockpit voice recorder, Hammar said.

A Gulf Air official in Cairo told news agencies that the passengers included 63 Egyptians, 34 Bahrainis, 12 Saudis and people from at least 10 other nations.

A list released by the Cairo airport passport control said that at least 36 passengers were younger than 18, the Associated Press reported.

They appeared to be traveling with different families, not in a single group.

In Washington, a State Department official told the Reuters news service that an American citizen working as a diplomatic courier was among the passengers.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, joined the search in the shallow waters.

He said two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters from the George Washington aircraft carrier battle group, which was making a port call in Bahrain, and one shore-based H-3 Sea King helicopter participated in the nighttime searches.

The destroyers Oldendorf and Milius--both of which are part of the George Washington battle group and are assigned to San Diego as home port--joined the search, along with the Catawba, an oceangoing tug that has a crane with a 10-ton capacity that is used to recover downed aircraft, Whitman said.

Bahraini television said one of the two engines on the European-made Airbus A-320 caught fire before the crash. But an air traffic controller at the Bahrain airport told the Associated Press that he saw no fire before the plane plunged into the gulf and erupted into flames.

The controller said the plane circled the runway twice in an attempt to land. On the third attempt, it plunged into the water and exploded. He said the aircraft’s crew did not report anything out of the ordinary before the crash.

Two Bahraini men from a nearby neighborhood told the Associated Press that the plane flew over their heads at an unusually low altitude heading toward the runway but then took a sharp turn toward the sea.

They said the plane returned minutes later, flying at an even lower altitude but heading straight toward the sea, where it crashed. They said that unusual noises came from the plane’s engines but that they saw no flames.

About 50 relatives of passengers aboard Flight 72, many wailing in their grief, were taken to a special lounge at the Bahrain airport, where they were meeting airline officials, the Reuters news agency reported. A huge traffic jam swiftly built up on the road to the airport, which is about five miles east of Manama.

A Saudi man fainted as a passenger list was read.

“This is the end of me,” one wailing woman said.

The relatives were asked to meet at a hotel this morning to identify the bodies of the victims.

Bahraini-based Gulf Air is owned by the governments of Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, which is part of the United Arab Emirates. It has a fleet of about 30 aircraft.

Sheik Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa, the emir of Bahrain, said in an address on Bahrain Television that he had ordered an investigation into the crash. He declared a three-day mourning period.

In Paris, Airbus Industrie said in a statement that the A-320 aircraft was delivered to Gulf Air in September 1994 and had made nearly 13,850 flights since then.

Airbus declined to speculate on what might have caused the crash and said it was dispatching a team of specialists to Bahrain to help with the investigation.

In January, a Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Ten people survived, and 169 died. An Air Inter Airbus A-320 crashed in 1992 in Strasbourg, France, killing 87 people.

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About Gulf Air

Bahraini-based carrier is equally owned by Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which is in the United Arab Emirates. Fleet includes 14 Airbus A-320s.

Previous fatal crash, Sept. 23, 1983: Bomb in baggage area of a Boeing 737 explodes as the plane approaches Abu Dhabi. All six crew members and 105 of 111 passengers are killed.

The Airbus A-320

Short- to medium-range plane can seat up to 150; cockpit crew of two.

Four previous fatal crashes:

June 26, 1983: Air France jet crashes in France, killing 3 of 136 aboard.

Feb. 14, 1990: Indian Airlines jet crashes in India; 92 of 146 die.

Jan. 20, 1992: Air Inter aircraft crashes in France; 87 of 96 die.

Sept. 14, 1993: Lufthansa jet crashes in Poland; 2 of 70 die.

Jet Involved in This Crash

Delivery to Gulf Air in September 1994.

Accumulated about 17,170 flight hours in nearly 13,850 flights.

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Sources: Associated Press, Airsafe.com, Motor-Presse Stuttgart, Moneyclips Ltd.