Bahia Bakari: The Twelve-Year-Old Who Survived the Indian Ocean

On June 30, 2009, Yemenia Flight 626 fell from the sky and plunged into the Indian Ocean with 153 people on board. Only one survived: a twelve-year-old girl named Bahia Bakari, who had been traveling with her mother. She spent eleven long hours alone in the open sea, injured, terrified, and fighting for her life.

Bahia later recalled the final moments before the crash. “We were landing, and I started to feel turbulence,” she said. “Then I felt an electric shock—and I woke up in the water.” She remembered nothing of the impact. She simply regained consciousness surrounded by darkness, debris, and roaring waves.

Bahia could not swim. She had no life vest. Her vision was blurred. Yet instinct led her to cling to a piece of floating wreckage—either part of the fuselage or a torn seat—and she held onto it with every ounce of strength she had. Broken bones, burns, and lacerations covered her body. Fuel burned her skin. The ocean heaved beneath a starless sky.

It is almost impossible to imagine a child alone in such vast emptiness. The loneliness itself was crushing. “I almost gave up,” she said. “I almost lost hope.” But whenever despair crept in, she thought of her mother. She convinced herself her mother might be waiting for her back home, and that belief kept her alive.

As dawn approached, a rescue vessel scanning the wreckage site finally spotted something small moving against the waves. A sailor dove into the water and swam toward the figure. Moments later, Bahia Bakari—exhausted, injured, barely conscious—was lifted aboard. The crew was stunned: in a disaster where all others had perished, she had endured the night alone.

Her rescue marked the end of her nightmare and the beginning of a quiet, remarkable recovery. Bahia returned to a private life, later writing a book about her experience while refusing sensational attention. Her story endures not because of the tragedy, but because of the strength she embodied.

When life casts us into deep water, the greatest power we hold is the decision to keep going—to hold on until the light returns. Bahia Bakari’s survival is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. By clinging to one small piece of stability, she proved that the storm is never stronger than the will of a soul determined to see another sunrise.