MORONI - French and U.S. aircraft joined a flotilla of local boats on Wednesday combing the Indian Ocean waters where an Airbus A310-300 went down off the Comoros archipelago with 153 people on board, almost all feared dead.
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Just one survivor -- a 14-year-old Franco-Comoran girl -- has been found in the sea after the plane crashed as it came in to land at the capital Moroni under darkness on Tuesday morning.
The girl, identified as Bakari Bahia, had cuts to her face and a fractured collar-bone, but was stable overnight,
"Her health is not in danger. She is very calm given the shock she suffered," local surgeon Ben Imani told Reuters at Moroni's El Marouf hospital.
Sixty-six French nationals were aboard the doomed flight, Paris officials said. Though a full list has not yet been published, a Yemeni official said there were also nationals from Canada, Comoros, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Yemen on board.
The plane was flying the final leg of a trip from Paris and Marseille to Comoros via Yemen.
The 14-year-old girl was picked up during rescue efforts on Tuesday by local fishermen and speedboats sent by authorities on the main island, Grande Comore.
With a population of around 800,000, the formerly French-ruled Comoros archipelago comprises three islands off mainland east Africa and just north-west of Madagascar.
Comoran officials said France had sent a plane, and was also moving two ships into the area, on Wednesday to launch a formal search operation. The United States also sent a helicopter to help, and a plane with supplies.
"We are meeting now with the French and American teams to coordinate our actions," said Colonel Ismael Moegni Daho, head of the local Centre for Rescue Operations and Civil Protection.
© 2012 IBTimes Company. All Rights Reserved.
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