Survivor of Yemenia Airways Plane Crash Phones Home

Bakari Kassim's 14-year-old Bakari Bahia is so far the only survivor from a Yemenia Airways jet which crashed near Comoros off the African coast carrying 153 people.

His wife was also on the jet — it's unlikely she'll be found alive. In a phone call his daughter told of the 12 hours she clung to wreckage of the jet.

[Bakari Kassim, Father of Survivor]:
"I asked her what happened and she said we saw the plane fall in the water. I found myself in the water. I was hearing people speak but I couldn't see anyone. I was in the dark. I couldn't see anything. Daddy, I couldn't swim very well. I grabbed on to something but I don't know what."

Bakari Bahia is recovering in this hospital in Comoros.

With a cut to her face and a broken collarbone doctors say she's traumatized but doing well.

She was found by a fishing boat. Other vessels continue to scour the waters off the archipelago for survivors and wreckage.

At a press conference, airline officials show the jet's route.

The Airbus A310 was flying the final leg of a trip from Paris and Marseille to Comoros via Yemen when it plunged into the Indian Ocean while preparing to land.

The head of Yemenia Airways says the aircraft's flight and data recorders have now been found.

Yemenia Airways, which is controlled by Yemen's government, says it will pay $28,000 to each of the victim's families.

At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, angry Comoran expatriates tried to block passengers from checking into another flight Yemen.

There's anger because French authorities banned the jet that crashed from its airspace two years ago because of safety concerns.

This group feels more should have been done to pass those concerns on.

But the European Union says all Yemenia aircraft could be banned from its airspace, unless recurring safety problems on the carrier are dealt with.

Category:

News & Politics

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• ntd
• NTDTV
• News
• Survivor
• Yemenia
• Airways
• Plane
• Crash
• jet
• Comoros
• wreckage
• ParisMarseille
• archipelago
• Airbus
• A310

[YemeniteOriginals]

NEVER FLY YEMENIA! I flew it once...horrible service beyond belief! Then, I flew it twice again to perhaps give them the benefit of the doubt. HORRIBLE SERVICE again. Disgusting airline - no safety. Corrupt officials. Never again!

[tarooq2]

so sad