Bahia Bakari

Who is Bahia Bakari?

Bahia Bakari is a French schoolgirl who was the sole survivor of Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310, which crashed into the Indian Ocean near the north coast of Grande Comore, Comoros on June 30, 2009, killing all the 152 other people on board. Bakari, who could barely swim and had no life vest, clung to a piece of aircraft wreckage, floating in heavy seas for over nine hours, much of it in pitch darkness, before being rescued. Her mother, who had been traveling with her from Paris, France, for a summer vacation in Comoros, died in the crash.

Dubbed "the miracle girl" by the world press, Bakari was flown back to France on a private Falcon-900 government jet, escorted by French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet. Arriving at Le Bourget airport, she was reunited with her father, Kassim Bakari, and the rest of her family, and transported to a Paris hospital for a fractured pelvis and collarbone, burns to her knees and some facial injuries.

Upon her return to Paris, Minister Joyandet hailed Bakari's survival:

Bakari was released from the hospital three weeks later, after undergoing treatment and surgery. In 2010 she released a memoir book, "Moi Bahia, la miraculée", co-authored with a French journalist as a ghostwriter, detailing her survival and rescue. She has reportedly turned down an offer by Steven Spielberg to make a film based on her book. According to Aviation Safety Network's database, Bakari is a survivor of the deadliest sole-survivor ocean crash, and the second deadliest sole-survivor crash ever.