- Girl, 14, is only plane crash survivor
- Found swimming among bodies, wreckage
- 142 passengers, 11 crew were on Flight IY 626
REMARKABLE details have emerged of the survival of a 14-year-old girl - the only person to be found alive after an Indian Ocean plane crash.
The teenager was pulled from the sea after being spotted swimming among bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight.
A man identified as one of the girl's rescuers said: "We tried to throw a life buoy. She could not grab it. I had to jump in the water to get her.
"She was shaking, shaking. We put four covers on her. We gave her hot, sugary water. We simply asked her name, village."
There were no reports of other survivors. Officials said the plane crashed into rough seas in darkness, after disappearing from control tower radar screens.
The A310 jet had aborted a landing attempt in the Comoros islands and was making a second attempt when it crashed.
It was the second time in less than a month that an Airbus has crashed into the ocean. This time French authorities said the Yemeni carrier had been under surveillance and that the 19-year-old jet had been banned from French airspace.
The teenage survivor was among 142 passengers and 11 crew on Flight IY 626.
Ramulati Ben Ali from the local
Red Cross said her condition was "not worrisome".
Arfachad Salim, a rescue co-ordinator for the Comoros Red Crescent, confirmed she was the only living passenger so far and said local fishermen had also found wreckage, passengers handbags and other effects.
The flight left Paris on Monday for Marseille and Sanaa, where passengers switched to the older Airbus to continue to Djibouti and Moroni.
French civil aviation officials said 66 passengers were French. Many of the passengers were likely to hold dual nationality, however. Three babies were among the passengers, officials said.
How did anyone come up with such a random date?
