A French court has opened hearings in the case of the 2009 crash of a Yemenia Airways flight that killed 152 people but miraculously left a 12-year-old girl alive.
The Yemeni national airline, whose representatives will not be in the dock due to the country’s still-raging civil war, faces a maximum fine of 225,000 euros for involuntary homicide and injuries in a trial expected to last four weeks.
On June 29, 2009, flight Yemenia 626 was on approach to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros islands which lie between Mozambique and Madagascar, after departing from the airport in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
France’s overseas territory of Mayotte is also part of the Comoros archipelago. Among the 142 passengers and 11 crew were 66 French citizens.
Rather than landing safely, just before 11:00 pm the Airbus A310 plunged into the Indian Ocean with its engines running at full throttle, killing everyone on board except Bahia Bakari, then just 12 years old.
In interviews and a book of her own, Bakari remembered “turbulence” during the approach, before feeling what seemed to be an electric shock and then blacking out — only to find herself in the sea.
She survived by clinging to debris for 11 hours until she was found by a fishing boat the following day.
Bakari was present as proceedings opened Monday, as were around 100 family members or friends of the crash victims. She is expected to testify on May 23 but refused to speak to the press.
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