Bahia Bakari

Bahia Bakari
Bahia Bakari (centre, in black) at a first anniversary ceremony in Paris. Also in the picture are Daniel Goldberg, Annick Lepetit, and Stéphane Troussel.
Born (1996-08-15) 15 August 1996 (age 28)
Evry, France
NationalityFrench

Bahia Bakari (born 15 August 1996) is a French woman 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 30 June 2009, killing the other 152 people on board.[1][2][3] 12-year-old[nb 1] Bakari, who had little swimming experience 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.[5][6] Her mother, who had been traveling with her from Paris, France, for a summer vacation in Comoros, died in the crash.[7][8]

Dubbed "the miracle girl" by the world press (French: la miraculée), Bakari was flown back to France on a private Falcon-900 government jet, escorted by French Co-operation 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.[2][7][9][10]

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

In the midst of the mourning, there is Bahia. It is a miracle, it is an absolutely extraordinary battle for survival ... It's an enormous message that she sends to the world ... almost nothing is impossible.[9]

Bakari was released from the hospital three weeks later, after undergoing treatment and surgery.[11] In 2010 she released a memoir book, "Moi Bahia, la miraculée" ("I'm Bahia, the miracle girl"), 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.[12]

  1. ^ "Teen Air-Crash Survivor 'Didn't Feel a Thing'". Time magazine. 1 July 2009. Archived from the original on 4 July 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  2. ^ a b Campbell, Matthew (5 July 2009). "Sole survivor of plane crash tells of rescue". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  3. ^ "Bahia Bakari, la rescapée de l'A310 de Yemenia, est arrivée en France" [Bahia Bakari, Yemenia A310 survivor, arrives in France] (in French). Agence France-Presse on LaCroix.com. 2 July 2009.
  4. ^ Moindjie, Ali (1 July 2009). "Yemenia plane crash survivor found swimming among bodies in Indian Ocean". Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 4 July 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference hours was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Child survivor 'barely able to swim'". The National. 2 July 2009. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  7. ^ a b Bennett, Rosemary (27 December 2009). "I saw dark shapes below and thought: this is the end". The Sunday Times. London.
  8. ^ "French aviation agency says submarine hears signals from Yemenia Airways black boxes". The Baltimore Sun. Associated Press. 5 July 2009.[dead link]
  9. ^ a b "Bahia Bakari, Comoros Crash Survivor, Returns To Father in Paris". The Huffington Post. 2 July 2009. Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference apcbs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference cbc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference aoln was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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