Bahia Bakari, 13, who is believed to be the only survivor of the Yemeni airliner crash with 153 people on board, returned to Paris on Thursday.
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Bahia Bakari recovers at Moroni hospital after she miraculously survived the Yemenia airliner crash off the Comoros, being ejected from the plane into pitch-black Indian Ocean waters. Bahia clung to debris, barely able to swim, after being thrown from the Yemeni jet that crashed into the Indian Ocean, officials said hailing the only survivor from the disaster.[Xinhuanet.com]
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She returned from the Comoros Islands on a French government plane with France's Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet.
Bakari arrived at Paris' Le Bourget airport where she received a warm welcome from her father and other family members.
The Airbus A310 crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros in heavy winds and bad weather when it approached Moroni airport on Tuesday. The girl was thrown from the plane into the sea.
"It's an enormous message that she sends to the world ... almost nothing is impossible. We will do everything to help her," Joyandet said when praising Bakari's strength and courage.
He also said: "The Comoros and France are working together to find out everything that happened."
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Bahia Bakari recovers at Moroni hospital after she miraculously survived the Yemenia airliner crash off the Comoros, being ejected from the plane into pitch-black Indian Ocean waters. [Xinhuanet.com]
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France and the U.S. on Thursday joined the search in the Comoros for possible survivors, although hopes are slim, bodies and debris from the plane.
Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim accused France of not warning them that the plane was unsafe. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner rejected the criticism, saying it was well known in the Comoros that the plane was banned by France.