Sole Survivor of '71 Jungle Crash Recounts Ordeal

The other 158 aboard were killed

(AP) - A glimmer of positive news from today's plane crash in India: Eight people somehow survived. The other 158 aboard were killed when the Air India Express jet overshot the runway at a tricky hilltop airport in Mangalore, crashed over a cliff, and burst into flames. An Associated Press photo showed two rescuers running up a hill carrying a young girl covered in foam to waiting medics. The child's fate was not immediately known. More»

12-year-old sole survivor tells her story

(NEWSER) - When a Yemenia Airways jet fell out of the tempestuous sky into the sea, it felt "like being electrocuted," the sole survivor tells the Times of London. Bahia Bakari heard "a big sound" before being ejected from her plane, says the 12-year-old, and survived the hours after the crash by clinging to a piece of floating wreckage. In the dark, choppy seas, Bahia could not see other survivors, but “was hearing people speak." More»

French gov't flies 14-year-old to Paris

(AP) - The young girl believed to be the only survivor of Tuesday's Indian Ocean plane crash flew back to Paris today, to the waiting arms of her father and siblings. Bahia Bakari, 14, returned to France alongside a government minister and other French officials. The other 151 people on Yemenia flight 626, including her mother, are presumed dead. More»

(NEWSER) - The 14-year-old girl who appears to be the lone survivor of yesterday’s Yemenia Airlines crash is recovering and in no danger, the BBC reports. Bahia Bakari escaped the crash with just a few cuts to her face and a fractured collarbone, though she can barely swim, and wasn't wearing a life vest. "It is a true miracle," a French official tells the AP. "She held onto a piece of the plane from 1:30am to 3pm." More»

14-year-old girl is sole survivor of crash; plane failed 2007 inspection

(NEWSER) - The French government has backed off reports that searchers located one of the black box flight recorders from Yemenia Air Flight 626, the BBC reports. The crash, in which a 14-year-old girl appears to be the sole survivor out of 151 passengers, occurred after the Airbus 310 had aborted its first try at landing, AFP reports. The girl, who lives in Marseilles and was traveling with her mother, suffered no serious injuries and is recovering in a hospital on the Comoros Islands. Earlier reports that a 5-year-old boy had also been rescued were incorrect. More»