14-year-old sole survivor of plane crash
Bahia Bakari, 14, and her mother said goodbye to father and husband, Kassim Bakari, as they boarded a Yemeni jetliner in Paris, both beamimg with excitement for their vacation. They were going to Comoros.
What Kassim Bakari didn’t know was that it would be the last time he would see his wife alive.
While they were on their last leg of the trip, the jet couldn’t win against the rough turbulence and went tumbling down into the Indian Ocean. Bahia Bakari is the only survivor.
Bakari survived by holding onto floating debris from 1:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., which is when a passing boat rescued her.
Bakari remembers what happened and recounted it to her father.
Kassim Bakari told the Associated Press, “Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the water, I could hear people talking, but I couldn’t see anyone. I was in the dark, I couldn’t see a thing.”
Bahia Bakari is now in a hospital in Moroni’s El Maaruf Hospital. As the 14-year-old girl sits in the hospital, she wants only one thing: to see her mother.
“I have told her that her mother is in the next room,” the girl’s uncle, Joseph Yousouf, told The Associated Press.
As for wounds, she has a broken collar bone and some scrapes and bruises.
Bahia Bakari will likely heal from these wounds quickly. What will take more time is learning to live without her mother.
She will be returning home to her father and three younger sisters.
andrea @ July 2, 2009