On June 30, 2009, at 1:50 am local time, Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310 carrying 153 people from Sanaa, Yemen to Moroni in the Comoros Islands, plunged into the Indian Ocean during its final approach to Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport. The aircraft broke apart on impact, killing 152 passengers and crew. Among those on board were Yemeni and Comorian nationals, along with international travelers making routine connections across the Arabian Sea and East Africa.

The flight had been routine until the approach phase, when the aircraft encountered difficulties. Investigators later determined that the crash resulted from pilot error during a non-standard landing approach in adverse weather conditions. The captain made an unstabilized approach and failed to execute a go-around when necessary, ultimately descending too steeply and striking the water at high speed. The dark ocean conditions and the violence of the impact meant that survival seemed impossible for all on board.

Yet one person defied the catastrophe. Bahia Bakari, a 12-year-old French schoolgirl traveling to visit family, somehow remained conscious and found herself clinging to floating wreckage in the darkness. For thirteen hours, in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, she held on. Rescue ships and aircraft eventually located her, guided by search operations coordinated by regional authorities. She was pulled from the water and rushed to hospital in Moroni, where she recovered from her ordeal. On July 23, 2009, Bakari was discharged from hospital, making her medical recovery as remarkable as her physical survival.

Bakari's rescue made international headlines and raised questions about why she alone survived when so many perished. Her testimony and medical evaluation contributed to the investigation's findings, while her story became a symbol of human resilience in an otherwise devastating tragedy. The crash remains one of the deadliest aviation disasters involving a single aircraft in African waters, and Bakari remains the sole survivor ever recorded from this incident.