France and U.S. join Comoros plane search

The Yemenia-run Airbus A310-300 went down in the Indian Ocean Tuesday with 153 people on board as it came in to land at Moroni, the Comoran capital. It was flying the final leg of a trip from Paris and Marseille to Comoros via Yemen.

Just one survivor -- a 14-year-old Franco-Comoran girl -- has been found in the sea, having clung to a floating material in the darkness. "Up to now we haven't found any other survivors, but we haven't given up hope," Comoran vice-president Idi Nadhoim told Reuters by telephone.

As a flotilla of boats took to sea off the main Grande Comore island at first light, angry Comoran expatriates tried to block passengers from checking into another Yemenia flight from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to Yemen.

"We don't want any more coffins travelling. We don't want Yemenia any more," said one protester Idris Ahmed.

About 60 people who had been due to take the flight did not check in, though the airports authority spokeswoman could not say if the protest was the cause or if they had decided not to travel for another reason. About 100 people did check in and the flight took off.

The survivor from the doomed flight, identified as Bakari Bahia, had cuts to her face and a fractured collar-bone, but was stable overnight. She was picked up during rescue efforts on Tuesday by local fishermen and speedboats.

The survivor's father, Bakari Kassim, told French TV channel i-Tele that he had contacted his daughter by telephone.

"I asked her what happened and she said 'We saw the plane fall in the water. I found myself in the water. I was hearing people speak but I couldn't see anyone. I was in the dark. I couldn't see anything. Daddy, I couldn't swim very well. I grabbed on to something but I don't know what,.'"

Sixty-six French nationals were aboard the 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.