Teen plane crash survivor 'didn't feel a thing'
France: Yemenia plane's distress signals located, not 'black boxes'
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The father of a teenage girl who remarkably survived a plane crash off the Comoros islands has described how his daughter was ejected from the plane into the Indian Ocean.
"She didn't feel a thing. She found herself in water," Paris-based Kassim Bakari told French radio RTL after speaking to his 13-year-old daughter Bahia who was recovering Wednesday in hospital in Moroni.
"She could hear people talking, but in the middle of the night she couldn't see a thing. She managed to hold on to a piece of something," said Bakari, whose wife was also on board the doomed flight and is presumed to be among the 152 victims.
"She said she was ejected from the plane," Bakari said.
Bahia, who lives in Marseille, escaped with just cuts to her face and a fractured collar-bone as the Yemenia Airways Airbus A310 tried to land at Moroni airport at the end of a four-stage flight from France.
A local surgeon said Bahia was doing well in hospital. "Her health is not in danger. She is very calm given the shock she suffered," Ben Imani told Reuters.com at Moroni's El Marouf hospital. The girl is expected to be flown home to France on a ministerial plane, Agence France-Presse reports.
Earlier Kassim Bakari told France Info, a French radio network, that his wife and daughter were flying to Comoros to visit relatives.
"When I had her on the phone, I asked her what happened and she said, 'Daddy, I don't know what happened, but the plane fell into the water and I found myself in the water ... surrounded by darkness. I could not see anyone,'" Bakari said.
French junior foreign minister Alain Joyandet met the girl in hospital on Wednesday and heard how she was pulled from the sea.
The head of the rescue team in the Comoros also told RTL the teenager survived astonishing odds. "It is truly, truly, miraculous," said Ibrahim Abdoulazeb. "The young girl can barely swim."
Another rescuer told France's Europe 1 radio the girl was spotted in the rough sea among bodies and plane debris in darkness about two hours after the crash.
"We tried to throw a life buoy. She could not grab it. I had to jump in the water to get her," the rescuer said, according to AFP.
"She was shaking, shaking. We put four covers on her. We gave her hot, sugary water. We simply asked her name, village."
Bakari said he did not believe he would see his wife or daughter again after learning of the crash.
"She is a very, very shy girl. I would never have thought she would have survived like this. I can't say that it's a miracle, I can say that it is God's will," he said.
Kassim Bakari said his daughter had been told her mother survived the crash. "When I spoke to her she was asking for her mother. They told her she was in a room next door, so as not to traumatize her. But it's not true. I don't know who is going to tell her."
Former pilot and aviation analyst John Cox said the girl's discovery reminded him of the 1987 crash of Northwest Flight 255 in Detroit, Michigan, in which only a 4-year-old girl survived, while 156 others died.
France: Yemenia plane's distress signals located, not 'black boxes'
Rescue workers have located the downed Yemenia Airways plane's distress signals, but not its flight data recorders, France's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry clarified comments made earlier in the day by the ministry's junior minister for cooperation Alain Joyandet.
He told CNN affiliate BFM TV that the "black boxes" -- the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- had been localized.
"The jet distress beacons were found, instead of the black boxes," the ministry later clarified. "There could have been some confusion."
The Airbus 310 went down early Tuesday, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members on a flight that originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
The jet took off from Sanaa at 9:45 p.m. Monday and vanished from radar when it was about 16 miles from Comoros' capital, Moroni.
The French navy and Yemeni authorities expanded search efforts for wreckage and bodies Wednesday, with a French frigate among the ships joining the search.
Searchers had recovered three bodies, Qadir said. Bahia Bakari, a 13-year-old French girl, was the only known survivor. Her mother was also on the flight, but she has not been found.
The girl's father Kassim Bakari told France Info, a French radio network, that his wife and daughter were flying to Comoros to visit relatives. 
"When I had her on the phone, I asked her what happened and she said, 'Daddy, I don't know what happened, but the plane fell into the water and I found myself in the water ... surrounded by darkness. I could not see anyone,'" Bakari said.
Passengers on the flight included 66 French citizens, 54 Comorians, one Palestinian and one Canadian, according to Yemeni and French officials. The crew was made up of six Yemenis, two Moroccans, one Ethiopian, one Filipino and one Indonesian.
A number of potential contributing factors were being considered in the crash. "The weather conditions were indeed very troubling and the winds were very strong, reaching 61 kilometers per hour (38 mph)," Qadir said. "That's one thing. The other thing was that the sea was very rough when the plane approached landing at Moroni airport."
But French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau noted that France banned the Yemenia Airbus A310-300 several years ago because of safety concerns.
"People are talking about poor weather conditions, but for the moment, we are unsure," Bussereau said. "It seems the plane may have attempted an approach, put on the gas, and attempted another approach, which then failed. For the moment, we must be careful, because none of this information is verified."
Qadir said it was too early to blame the aircraft for the crash.
"This plane is just like any other plane," he said. "It can have a malfunction, but we don't know what really happened before the investigation is over. And then we can determine if there is a technical issue, bad weather or anything else that may have led to the crash."
It is the second crash involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation.
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