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Moroni, Comoros. French and US planes on Wednesday hunted for survivors from a plane that crashed off the coast of Comoros, while in Paris, expatriates from the Indian Ocean archipelago tried to block another flight by the same airline.

The Airbus A310-300 went down in the Indian Ocean on 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.

The cause of the crash was unknown, but the black box was located, state-run carrier Yemenia said.

Just one survivor — a 14-year-old French-Comoran girl — has been found in the sea so far, having held on to floating material in the darkness.

“She clung to a piece of debris from the plane for 12 hours,” French Cooperation Secretary Alain Joyandet told France Info radio, adding she would be flown to a Paris hospital.

“She signaled to a passing boat and it was able to pick her up. She really showed incredible physical and moral strength.”

Comoran Vice-President Idi Nadhoim said that no other survivors had been found by Wednesday afternoon. “But we haven’t given up hope,” he said.

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

“We don’t want any more coffins traveling. We don’t want Yemenia any more,” said one protester, Idris Ahmed.

About 60 people who had been due to fly did not check in.

The airport authority spokeswoman could not say if the protest was the cause or if they did not board 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 collarbone, but was stable overnight after being picked up on Tuesday.

Her father, Bakari Kassim, told TV channel i-Tele he had contacted his daughter. “I asked her what happened,” he said. “And she said ‘We saw the plane fall in the water. I found myself in the water.’ ”

Sixty-six French nationals were on the flight, 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.


Reuters