The world was shocked in when a series of plane crashes left many crushed over the loss of their loved ones. But in a simple twist if fate,13-year-old Bahia Bakari, was the lone survivor of Yemenia Airlines flight 626 crash.
For the first time she spoke about that horrific day and recalled sitting next to her mother moments before the crash.
“I looked out the porthole and the plane started to shake. They didn’t tell us there was going to be a crash,” Bahia recalls.
Bakari and her mother took off in Paris and swapped planes in Yemeu, a 19-year-old Airbus 310, destined for the small African nations of Comoros. During the night hours of the flight, the plane went down over the Indian Ocean.
“I felt the water around me. I found myself in the ocean. I don’t know how it happened, I didn’t see my mother.”
Unable to swim, Bakari clung from the plane debris in shark-infested waters.
“I heard women crying near me, others were alive in the water but I couldn’t see them. I was too far away.”
“The voices soon faded. Eight hours later small fishing boat spotted the little girl. Her only injuries were a few bruises and a broken collar bone.”
The lone survivor was flown back to Paris an transported to an airport to be reunited with her father were they broke the horrific news.
“A psychologist came to see me and said, ‘I don’t think your mother is coming.’ I was the only one alive. Then I understood.”
