Gulf Air Company

BAHRAIN * The final report on the August 2000 crash of a Gulf Air flight, which killed all 143 people on board, has blamed the aircraft's Bahraini pilot for the accident. The Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs report, released this week, said pilot Ihsan Shakeep was so confused in the final seconds of the Cairo-to-Manama flight that he pitched the plane into the waters off Bahrain International Airport.

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.

U.S. Navy divers have retrieved the diplomatic pouches carried by an American courier who was killed in the crash of a Gulf Air jet. The divers found the "diplomatic cargo" in the shallow waters off Bahrain, said Cmdr. Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain. The courier, Seth J. Foti, 31, of Browntown, Va., was the only American aboard the Gulf Air jet when it crashed into the sea Wednesday.