A teenage girl who is the only known survivor of a Yemeni plane crash could barely swim but managed to hang on long enough for rescuers to find her in the ocean, her father said today.
A nurse who treated the girl said she was “doing well” in a hospital in the Comoros.
The Yemenia Airbus 310 jet carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean early yesterday as it attempted to land in the dark amid strong winds.
Kassim Bakari said he spoke with his oldest daughter, 14-year-old Baya, by phone after the crash. Baya had left Paris on Monday night with her mother to see family in the Comoros.
“(Baya was) ejected, she found herself beside the plane,” her father said, describing her as “fragile” and saying she could “barely swim”.
“She’s a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that,” Bakari told France’s RTL radio.
Said Mohammed, a nurse at El Mararouf hospital in the Comoros capital of Moroni, said the girl was doing well and doctors would release more information on her condition later today.
Sergeant Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio that he rescued the girl after she was found bobbing in the water.
He said she couldn’t grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so he jumped into the sea. He added that rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar.
AP