The former french colony uses Airbus and is now complaining that the company didn't inform them of the problems encountered by this aircraft. By this statement, I gather that the Comoros government wasn't informed of this particular airplane being banned from French airspace. Although, this plane picked up the passengers from a plane that was validated to fly from France and were deliberately transferred. Someone knew why this plane could not make the entire flight!! Idi Nadhoim, the Vice-President of Comoros stated that maintenance was the responsibility of Airbus.
The islanders often complained of safety problems and of people having to stand while in flight. Just like overcrowded buses in many parts of the world. However, the problems facing passengers of air travel, are far more deadly and should have been addressed by the governing body. Not the makers of the plane.
It seems that there is going to be alot of finger pointing as to who was responsible for a tragedy that hasn't been shown to be the fault of anyone yet! Weather at the time was horrible, but from most reports, not impossible to handle for skilled aircrew. I am sure they wouldn't have tried to land in weather that would jeopardize their own lives.... lakotahope
MORONI, Comoros - A bruised teenage girl clung to the wreckage of a Yemeni plane for more than 13 hours before rescuers found her floating in the Indian Ocean, a French official said Wednesday.
There was no word on any other survivors, but French officials said one of the plane's black boxes had been found.
The Yemenia Airbus 310 jet carrying 153 people to island nation of Comoros crashed into the sea early Tuesday as it attempted to land in the dark amid howling winds.
An Associated Press reporter saw 14-year-old Bahia Bakari in a Comoros hospital Wednesday as she was visited by government officials. She was conscious with bruises on her face and a gauze bandage on her elbow.
"It is a true miracle. She is a courageous young girl," Alain Joyandet, France's minister for international cooperation, said at the hospital. "She held onto a piece of the plane from 1:30 a.m to 3:00 p.m. She has lost her mother. Her father arrives tomorrow."
'Fragile'
The girl's father told French radio that his daughter was "fragile" and could "barely swim" but managed to hang on.
Kassim Bakari said he spoke with his oldest daughter by phone after Tuesday's crash. Bahia had left Paris on Monday night with her mother to see family in the Comoros.
He said she 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."
A nurse at El Mararouf hospital in the Comoros capital of Moroni said the girl was "doing well".
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.
Equipment faults
The crash a few miles 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.
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about nine miles north of the Comoran coast and 21 miles from the Moroni airport.
A French military cargo plane flew Wednesday over a zone 50 miles north of Grand Comoros Island, while two inflatable dinghies sent by French forces on La Reunion island combed waters closer to the coast.
"The search is continuing," Joyandet said. "No other survivors have been found for the moment."
Col. Dominique Fontaine, who is managing the rescue operations, said Wednesday that no other debris has been found so far.
A French tug arrived from the French island of Mayotte to recover survivors, corpses and debris, while a French frigate diverted from anti-piracy operations, the Nivose, and another French military ship headed to the scene.
Lack of seat belts?
Both France and Airbus sent experts to the Comoros to aid in the investigation.
The tragedy — and dwindling hopes that anyone else made it out alive — prompted an outcry in Comoros, where residents have long complained of a lack of seat belts on Yemenia flights and planes so overcrowded that passengers had to stand in the aisles.
The Comoros, home to some 700,000 people, is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800 miles south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar.
French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" in the plane's equipment during a 2007 inspection, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said.
European Union Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks but would now face a full investigation amid questions why passengers were put on another jet in the Yemeni capital of San'a.
The vice president of Comoros criticized French officials for not telling his nation about any suspected problems.
"We wish the French could have informed us of any irregularity or any problems with that plane," Idi Nadhoim said Wednesday on France-24 television.
"Most if not all of the planes of Yemenia are Airbus," he said. "They are supposed to be serviced by Airbus."
"We trust the civil aviation authorities of the countries we are working with," he added, suggesting that French authorities discriminated against "those French who are left by themselves to fly this type of plane" — French citizens from former French colonies.
Airbus said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia since 1999.
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