PARIS — A woman who aged 12 survived the
2009 Yemenia Airways crash in the Comoros islands that killed all 152 others
onboard described Monday the terrifying moments leading up to her plunge into
the ocean and subsequent miraculous rescue, in the
French trial against the
airline.
اضافة اعلان
Bahia Bakari, now 25, has sat through several
hearings with her father but had not testified or spoken to journalists
attending the trial that opened this month. “I didn’t see how I was going to
get through this,” Bakari told the court of her hours spent in the water
holding on to a piece of debris, with “the taste of jet fuel” in her mouth.
Bakari and her mother left
Paris on June 29, 2009,
for a vacation in the Comoros, changing planes in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa
for the final leg of the trip. “It was a smaller plane, there were flies inside
and it smelled strongly like a bathroom,” she said, but “the flight went
normally” — until the beginning of the landing descent.
During the night-time approach of Flight Yemenia 626
to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros islands that lie between
Mozambique and
Madagascar, the Airbus A310 jet plunged into the Indian Ocean with its engines
running at full throttle. “I started to feel the turbulence, but nobody was
reacting much, so I told myself it must be normal,” Bakari said as over 100
family members and friends of the victims listened in silence. Suddenly “I felt
something like an electric shock go through my body.”
‘Couldn’t see anyone’
“There’s a black hole
between the moment when I was seated in the plane and the moment I found myself
in the water.” France’s overseas territory of Mayotte is part of the Comoros
archipelago, and 66 French citizens were among the 142 passengers and 11 crew
members aboard.
Investigators and experts found there was nothing
wrong with the aircraft, blaming instead “inappropriate actions by the crew
during the approach to Moroni airport, leading to them losing control.”
No one from Yemenia Airlines has appeared at the
trial, where prosecutors have accused the company of pilot training programs
“riddled with gaps” and of continuing to fly to Moroni at night despite its
non-functioning landing lights.
The company’s lawyers have denied any wrongdoing.
Yemenia is charged with involuntary homicide and injuries.
Bakari, regaining consciousness in choppy waters,
recalled waiting for hours in the water, trying to climb atop the largest piece
of debris she could reach, but without the strength to succeed.
“I realized that voices were calling for help in
Comorian, and I cried out a bit but without much hope, because there was
nothing but water around me and I couldn’t see anyone,” she said.
“I ended up falling asleep while holding onto the
plane debris,” and while she could see the coast when she woke up, “the water
was really choppy.”
‘Hardest thing’
It was by thinking of her
“incredibly protective” mother that allowed her to hold on until she was
rescued by a boat after a dozen hours in the water.
Initially, she was convinced “that I was the only
one who fell” and that the other passengers had arrived safely before a
psychologist at the hospital told her she was the only survivor.
“The hardest thing for me has been dealing with the
grief for my mother, I was very close to her,” Bakari said, her voice breaking
and tears flowing for the first time during her testimony.
The Yemeni
national airline, whose representatives say they will not be in the dock due to
the country’s still-raging civil war, face a maximum fine of 225,000 euros
($240,000) for involuntary homicide and injuries.
Although the plane’s black boxes were found weeks
after the crash,
France accused the Comoros government of dragging its feet in
the investigation, while victims’ families accused Yemen of lobbying to hinder
a trial.
Around 560 people have joined the suit as
plaintiffs, many of them from the region around Marseille in southern France,
home to many of the victims.
A video feed to the southern port city has been set up for
their benefit, allowing them to follow part of the proceedings.
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