Bahia Bakari lies in her bed at the Moroni hospital after she miraculously survived the Yemenia airliner crash off the Comoros islands, being ejected from the plane into pitch-black Indian Ocean waters. -- PHOTO: AFP
MORONI - THE sole survivor of a Yemeni jet that plunged into deep water while attempting to land on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros was reunited with her father back in France early on Thursday.
LOCAL rescuers suspect many of the dead remained trapped inside the doomed plane and say the search effort should focus on finding the wreck.
'Everything leads us to believe that the bodies of the victims remain inside. In two days we haven't found a body, any large pieces of debris or suitcases floating on the water,' disaster centre member Ibrahim Abdourazak told Reuters.
Bahia Bakari, who can barely swim, clung on to floating debris for more than 12 hours before search teams spotted her struggling in rough seas.
Rescuers have failed to find any of the remaining 152 passengers and crew since the Yemenia Airbus A310 crashed in rough weather in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
American and French military aircraft continued to scour the crash site on Thursday as hopes of another miracle find faded fast and efforts turned towards locating the wreckage thought to be in waters up to 500 metres (1,640 ft) deep.
Local doctors, who marvelled at Bakari's escape with little more than cuts, bruises and a fractured collar bone, said she was discharged on her father's request.
'It was on the demand of her father in France. The girl was regaining her spirit and was in a satisfactory physical state,' said Dr Jean Youssef, lead doctor at the disaster unit on Grand Comore.
Television images showed her lying weakly in a poorly-equipped intensive care bed, unaware her mother had died in the crash.
Dr Youssef said Moroni's El Marouf hospital lacked the facilities needed to properly scan the teenager's body for any internal damage.
Bakari returned to France on a French government jet with French Cooperation Secretary Alain Joyandet. -- REUTERS
