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Updated Wednesday, July 1, 2009 5:23 pm TWN, By ANGELA CHARLTON and TOM MALITI, AP

Teen survivor of Yemeni jet crash 'doing well'

MORONI, Comoros — A teenage girl who is the only known survivor of a Yemeni jetliner crash could barely swim but managed to hang on long enough for rescuers to find her in the ocean, her father told French radio Wednesday.

A nurse who treated the girl said she was "doing well" in a hospital in the Comoros.

A Yemenia Airbus 310 jet carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean early Tuesday as it attempted to land in the dark amid howling winds. A French government minister said Wednesday the plane's black boxes — flight data and cockpit voice recorders — appear to have been found.

Kassim Bakari said he spoke with his oldest daughter, 14-year-old Baya, by phone after Tuesday's crash. Baya 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 after the crash in the middle of the night.

"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, describing her as "fragile" and saying she could "barely swim."

"She's a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that," he said.

Said Mohammed, a nurse at El Mararouf hospital in the Comoros capital of Moroni, said the girl was doing well and doctors would release more on her condition later Wednesday.

Sgt. Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio that he rescued the girl after she was found bobbing in the water. She couldn't grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so he jumped into the sea, Abdilai said. He said rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar.

The crash a few miles (kilometers) 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.

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