Yemen Airline Crash: Who Survived?

1. The total number of passengers (153), including crew.
2. Passengers (139 +3 infants +11 crew).
3. Nationalities of the passengers will be authorized upon the arrival of information.
4. The weather was turbulent. Wind speed was (61) kilometers.

A five-year-old child survived and was rescued from the ocean, while some bodies have also been recovered.

Officials confirmed three bodies and a 14-year-old female survivor have been recovered in the water off the Comoros, an archipelago of three islands about 2,900 kilometres south of Yemen. The survivor was initially reported to be a male toddler.

The aircraft, operating as Flight IY626 from Sana’a, Yemen, bound for Moroni in the Comoros, carried 11 crewmembers and 142 passengers, including 66 French nationals.

"A child was found alive. He is now on a rescuers' boat," said Ben Imani, a doctor at the main hospital in the islands' capital, Moroni. A Comoros Red Cross official confirmed the rescue.

"We have all that is needed - drips, equipment - to assist the child immediately."

Rescuers said the 14-year-old, whose first name is Bahia, was found floating 10 miles out to sea from the Comoros islands off Africa's east coast where the Yemeni Airbus was trying to land.

Earlier reports saying the survivor was a five-year-old boy were wrong, said a rescue centre spokesman.

The girl, who had been travelling with her mother, was taken to hospital and was making a good recovery in hospital.

Late Tuesday, rescue officials on Comoros told ABC News the survivor was a 14 year-old-girl. Earlier in the day, government officials said the survivor was a 5-year-old boy.

Col. Movigni Daho, coordinator of the rescue team in Comoros, identified the survivor as Bahia Bariki, a citizen of both France and Comoros. She was travelling for summer holidays to the city of Moroni, the capital of Comoros.

The majority of the 142 passengers were from the Comoros islands and were returning home from Paris, according to officials. France has said 66 of the passengers were French citizens.

The Comores Foreign Ministry said however, that number was incorrect and 147 passengers (including lap children) were on board. The airplane had departed Sana'a with a delay of 90 minutes at 21:30L. The French Transport Minister reported, that 66 of the passengers were French.

Alors que les premières informations faisait état d'un petit garçon secouru dans la zone où s'est abîmée un Airbus A310 de la compagnie yéménite Yemenia Air, il semble que ce soit une adolescente de 14 ans qui ait été retrouvé vivante au large des Comores, selon une responsable de la police comorienne.

An Airbus statement said the plane, an Airbus 310 which carries 220 passengers, went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia (Yemen Airways) since 1999.

Most passengers had travelled to Sanaa from Paris or Marseille on another aircraft.