Classified Material Recovered From Crash Site

Aug. 26 -- U.S. Navy divers have retrieved the diplomatic pouches carried by a U.S. courier who was killed in this week’s Gulf Air crash off Bahrain.

The divers began looking for the “diplomatic cargo” at dawn Friday and found it in the shallow waters off Bahrain on Friday afternoon, said Cmdr. Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

The courier, Seth J. Foti, 31, of Browntown, Va., was the only American aboard Gulf Air flight 72 when it crashed into 18 feet of clear water Wednesday evening, killing all 143 people on board.

Foti was carrying classified information in yellow pouches, the U.S. State Department said. These were recovered by the same team that found the plane’s “black boxes”— its cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

The black boxes will be shipped to Washington for analysis tonight.

The U.S. Embassy in Bahrain held a private memorial service today for Foti, one of 97 full-time State Department couriers. He and his wife of three months, Anisha, met at the embassy, where she had worked briefly last year.

Foti’s body is expected to arrive in Washington on Sunday, and a funeral is being planned in his hometown.

Investigation Begins

Meanwhile, a team of more than 20 inspectors from the United States, Bahrain, France, Egypt and Oman began their investigation today, examining the plane’s tail as it jutted out of the sea.

The NTSB's Frank Hilldrup is considered the head of the investigation. But he must report to a committee headed by the Bahraini Minister of Transportation, Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

An eight-man advance team began by photographing an expanse of sea littered with scraps. Mobile phones and clothing bobbed in the water, although divers had retrieved most personal effects.

“We’re going to map out the wreckage area and where the pieces are,” said one of three investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. “Obviously, then we still have to pull the stuff out.”