A teenage girl who is the only known survivor of a Yemeni jetliner crash could barely swim but managed to hang on long enough for rescuers to find her in the ocean, her father told French radio Wednesday. A nurse who treated the girl said she was «doing well» in a hospital in the Comoros. A Yemenia Airbus 310 jet carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean early Tuesday as it attempted to land in the dark amid howling winds. A French government minister said Wednesday the plane's black boxes _ flight data and cockpit voice recorders _ appear to have been found. Kassim Bakari said he spoke with his oldest daughter, 14-year-old Baya, by phone after Tuesday's 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 on her condition later Wednesday. Sgt. Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio that he rescued the girl after she was found bobbing in the water. She couldn't grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so he jumped into the sea, Abdilai said. He said rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar. The crash a few miles (kilometers) 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, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals. Turbulence was believed to be a factor in the crash, Yemen's embassy in Washington said. Alain Joyandet, the French minister for cooperation, told i-Tele television that «it appears that the black boxes of the plane have been recovered.» Joyandet gave no other details about the recorders, which could provide key clues as to what happened.
