Prayers for Gulf crash victims

Bahrain's prime minister led the prayers

Prayers for the 143 victims of the Gulf Air crash have been broadcast live from Bahrain's Grand Mosque as efforts get under way to determine what caused the disaster.

The airline has urged caution when speculating about its causes, saying it is too early to attribute the crash to human error.

Gulf Air has announced an immediate interim payment of $25,000 to each of the bereaved families.

Rescue teams have recovered bodies, black boxes and debris

The Airbus A320 plunged into the Gulf off Bahrain on Wednesday, killing all 143 people on board.

The prayers, attended by 2,000 people, were led by Bahrain's Prime Minister, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. Before him were the bodies of three members of the same family, including a small child.

The bodies of the Egyptian victims are to be flown home with their families on Saturday.

Plane facts

The ill-fated plane was delivered to Gulf Air in September 1994

The A320 model entered service in April 1988

Wednesday's crash is its sixth major disaster

In the last A320 crash, 87 people died in eastern France in January 1992

Amid intense media speculation in Bahrain that excessive speed contributed to the crash, Gulf Air's chief A320 pilot, Captain Hamid Ali, stressed that only the official investigation could establish the reasons for the disaster.

Rescue teams have recovered both data recorders from the wreckage - one containing cockpit conversations, the other flight data.

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Gulf Air says it could take weeks to recover the data from the recorders, or "black boxes".

Two crash investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board have arrived in Bahrain to help the enquiry into the ill-fated Flight GF072 from Cairo.

International emergency phone number for Gulf Air

0044 208 2839666

They join a representative from the plane's maker, Airbus Industrie, and French accident investigators.

Gulf Air's Captain Ali said the control tower had not spotted any error in the jet's approach to Bahrain airport.

He said the plane made only one attempt to land before the crash, contradicting earlier reports which said it crashed on its third attempt.

"The pilot commenced a go-around... and the plane disappeared from radar at one nautical mile from the airport," he said.

No evidence of fire

He also dismissed initial reports that one of the A320's engines had been on fire.

An article in the Bahrain Tribune quoting an unnamed source said the pilot would have overshot the runway if he had attempted to land on the first approach.

After two further attempts, the report said, the plane's speed was still too high and the pilot lost control while making a small turn and nose-dived into the sea.

The plane broke up after hitting the water

But Captain Ali said on Friday the plane's 37-year-old Bahraini pilot, Ihsan Shakeeb, was a veteran pilot.

"He was considered very experienced and he got 6,856 hours, and the minimum required is 4,000 hours," he said.

However a BBC correspondent in Bahrain, John McIntyre, says it is now known that he had only recently been appointed a captain.

Ahmed Hassan, an eyewitness, told the BBC that the jet veered to avoid buildings before plunging into the sea.

"It U-turned and tried to land, then in 15 seconds it went sharply down into the sea and there was a huge fire," he said.

He said the jet fell "sharply, like an arrow".

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