ISPARTA, Turkey - Thousands of people flocked to mosques in Isparta on Saturday to pray for the victims of a deadly plane crash that killed all 57 people on board.
Investigators, meanwhile, searched for the cause of the crash, while one technician was reported to suggest pilot error could have played a role.
The Atlasjet MD-83 was flying from Istanbul to Isparta in Turkey's southwest early Friday morning when it crashed, killing 50 passengers and seven crew members.
The weather and the visibility were good, officials said, but the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar a few minutes before it was supposed to land.
Military helicopters with thermal cameras spotted the wreckage on a hill about 7 miles away from the airport. Bodies strapped to seats, clothes and pieces of scrap metal were strewn across a large area.
Many shopowners in downtown Isparta closed their stores to attend prayers. Musa Akbay, a civil servant, came to a mosque in the city center, holding his 7-year-old daughter's hand.
"None of the dead are people that I knew. But I came here to pray for them," Akbay said.
Many attended funerals of some of the victims in Isparta, which lies north of a high mountain range along Turkey's Mediterannean coast. The population of the province of the same name is less than half a million.
Vahit Tuglaci, who lost a cousin in the disaster, said he still could not believe what happened. "We waited with some hope but believed he was dead when we saw him," Tuglaci said. He said he saw his cousin in a morgue.
Canser Unveren, who lost a friend, heard of the crash shortly after it happened.
"As soon as we heard of the crash, we started praying for salvation. But it did not happen," Unveren said.
Sefa Inan, honorary chair of the Association of Plane Technicians, said evidence suggests the crash was due to pilot error, daily Aksam newspaper reported.
"Probably it was flying too low. I think the head pilot realized the hill was there at the very last moment," he was quoted as saying by Aksam.
Inan was not involved in the investigation but he said he spoke with technicians who were involved in the plane's routine checks. He said he was told the plane had no technical problems.
A group of physicists who were working on a national nuclear project were among the victims.
But there was no reason to believe that terrorism or sabotage was the cause, said Ali Ariduru, head of Turkey's civil aviation authority. The crash site is far from where separatist Kurdish rebels, mostly known for hit-and-run attacks targeting soldiers, operate.
Investigators found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, the civil aviation authority said Friday afternoon. The Sabah newspaper said the recorders were sent to United States for study.
Dogan news agency released a transcript of the conversation between the Atlasjet pilot and the Isparta control tower, but the exchange did not indicate any problem.
Atlasjet, a private airline established in 2001, operates regular flights inside Turkey and chartered flights to Europe and other foreign destinations.
In Renton, Wash., Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company would provide technical assistance to help investigate the crash if invited by the Turkish authorities.
He said the plane was delivered in 1994 by McDonnell Douglas before its merger with Boeing, and that the original customer was not Atlasjet.
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