Teen clung to plane wreckage for 13 hours

A BRUISED teenage girl who is the only known survivor of a Yemeni jet crash clung to wreckage for more than 13 hours before rescuers found her floating in the Indian Ocean, a French official said yesterday.

There was no word on any other survivors.

French officials said one of the plane’s black boxes had been found, which could provide clues into the cause of Tuesday’s crash off the coast of this former French colony. However, there was confusion as French Minister for Co-operation Alain Joyandet later said signals picked up by rescuers came from a distress beacon and not the plane’s black box.

The Yemenia Airbus 310 jet was carrying 153 people to the island nation of Comoros when it crashed into the sea as it attempted to land in the dark amid howling winds.

Bahia Bakari, the 14-year-old survivor, was visited by government officials. She was conscious with bruises on her face and a gauze bandage on her elbow.

“It is a true miracle. She is a courageous young girl,” Joyandet said at the hospital. “She held onto a piece of the plane from 1.30am to 3pm.”

He said she was strong enough to signal a passing boat, which rescued her.

“She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength,” he said.

Joyandet said the girl would be flown back to France last night and put in a Paris hospital upon arrival.

“She is physically out of danger, she is evidently very traumatised,” he said.

The girl’s father told French radio that his daughter was “fragile” and could “barely swim” but managed to hang on.

Kassim Bakari said he spoke with his oldest daughter by phone.

Bahia had left Paris on Monday night with her mother to see family in the Comoros.

He said she was ejected and found herself beside the plane.

“She couldn’t feel anything, and found herself in the water. She heard people speaking around her, but she couldn’t see anyone in the darkness,” Bakari said.

“She’s a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that.”

Sgt Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio that Bahia was too weak to grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so he jumped into the sea to get her. He said rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar.

The crash, a few kilometres off this island nation, came two years after aviation officials reported equipment faults with the plane, an aging Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a Yemenia airlines flight from Paris and Marseille to the Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes.

Most of the passengers were from the Comoros.