year-old Bahia Bakari escaped with just a fractured collarbone and some bruises when the Yemenia Airbus 310 jet she was in went down in howling winds early Tuesday carrying 153 people. Rescuers found her in the Indian Ocean off Comoros where the plane was scheduled to land. In a Comoros hospital Wednesday, she was conscious with bruises on her face and a gauze bandage on her elbow. Her hair was pulled back and she was covered by a light blanket. “It is a true miracle. She is a courageous young girl,” Alain Joyandet, France's minister for international cooperation, said at the hospital. He said she held onto a piece of the plane from 1:30 A.M. Tuesday to 3:00 P.M., then signaled 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 on Wednesday night and put in a Paris hospital upon arrival. “She is physically out of danger, she is evidently very traumatized,” he said. The girl was traveling with her mother, who is feared dead. They had left Paris on Monday night to see family in the Comoros. “She's asking for her mother,” Yousouf said. For fear of upsetting the girl, Yousouf has told the girl that her mother is in the room next door. The girl's father told French radio that his oldest daughter could “barely swim” but managed to hang on. Kassim Bakari, who spoke with his oldest daughter by phone, said Bahia 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 on France's RTL radio. “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.
