On September 23, 1983, Gulf Air flight 771 took off from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan. The Boeing 737-2P6 was bound for Abu Dhabi before flying on to Doha and Bahrain. The aircraft left Karachi slightly late, due to a checked-in passenger being missing. There were 107 passengers onboard. They were mostly Pakistani nationals returning to jobs in the cities after the Eid al-Adha holidays. There were also seven passengers from the UK, one from the US and one from Iran.
