In the midnight black waters a 12-year-old French schoolgirl, her collarbone broken and body badly bruised, held on to a piece of debris. At first she could hear people talking but could see nothing. Scared and trembling, she drifted in and out of sleep as the cold began to permeate her body. But as the hours ticked by this young girl, described by her father as "timid" and "barely able to swim", clung on to life.
As a new day dawned, she would be spotted by rescuers, plucked from the sea and gently nursed back to health. She had beaten incredible odds to be the sole survivor of the doomed Yemenia Airlines flight IY626.
It was nearly 2am on Tuesday, with winds blowing at up to 60kph when the plane tried and failed to land on Moroni's runway.
The ageing A310 Airbus made a second attempt on the Comoros island and at some point Bahia Bakari was told to strap herself into her seat. She was with her mother, Aziza, and they were flying to the Comoros to visit relatives for the summer holidays. This was the last leg of the four-stage journey, which had begun on Monday morning in Paris, continued on to Marseille, Sana'a, Djibouti and finally Moroni.
As instructions were being issued to passengers, Bahia felt something like an electric shock then, suddenly, she was floating in the Indian Ocean. Her long, lonely, terrifying ordeal begun.
Some 12 hours later she was found, still clinging to the wreckage, by Sgt Said Abdilai. She was floating a few kilometres off the coast of Niazidja, the largest of the trio of islands that make up the Comoros on the south-east coast of Africa between Mozambique and Madagascar.
Few details have yet emerged of how Bahia managed to survive the disaster that killed 152 others on board, including her mother. But her bravery and tenacity are beyond doubt.
Bahia's father, Kassim Bakari, who was reunited with his daughter after she was flown back to France, said: "In the midst of the mourning there is Bahia. It is a miracle, it is an absolutely extraordinary battle for survival.
"I took her in my arms and embraced her - but not too strongly, because her collarbone is injured."
Two teams of investigators from the French government and from the plane's manufacturer, Airbus, which made the A310-300 model, are examining the crash site for clues as to what happened. Bahia is also expected to be interviewed by investigators, although she is recovering in a children's hospital in Paris after her flight home on Thursday on an executive jet chartered by the French government.
Her story is particularly poignant for France, which is still reeling from the tragedy of Air France flight AF447 which crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1.
The Air France plane belly-flopped into the water in one piece from a height of 10,688 metres. Within a matter of seconds "with strong vertical acceleration" it had hit the ocean, leaving no time to follow basic safety procedures, the French bureau leading the investigation stated on Thursday in its first report on the disaster.
All 228 people on board are presumed dead. While signals emitted by beacons in the aircraft's data recording devices have probably expired, the search for the black boxes will continue for another week.
Meanwhile, the inquiry into the Yemenia crash is just getting under way after the arrival of French air accident investigators on Comoros.
What makes Bahia's story even more unusual is that she is the sole survivor. Typically, many passengers live or no one does. While rare, there have been other cases. In 1995, a nine-year-old Colombian girl, Erika Delgado, survived the crash of an Intercontinental Colombia airliner near Cartagena. The child fell out of the plane and her fall was cushioned by seaweed in a swamp.
"There needs to be a chain of events to happen in order to survive," said Dr Tom Barth, the director of research and development at AmSafe, an Arizona-based company that makes safety equipment for the aerospace and defence industries. "If one survived then there were opportunities for others to survive but the fact that none of the others did and she [Bahia] did is quite miraculous.
"First, if we assume the people were in the plane when it impacted the water, the cockpit has to remain intact in order for passengers to survive. The cockpit, and the cabin, your immediate surroundings, your immediate space has to be intact so you are not crushed. The second step in the chain is the impact itself, that is, the acceleration has to be within human tolerance limits. The last is that the post-crash environment has to be survivable. Smoke, fire, or cold water in this case, are dangers."
Dr Barth speculated that Bahia's survival could have been because of the position of her seat on the plane.
"Perhaps the front part of the plane broke up and she was in the back and fell through a crack through to the front," he said. "If she fell out, the aircraft certainly didn't break up in mid-air or no one would have survived. It will help investigators a lot to hear where she was in the plane."
It is nearly impossible for someone to survive in a plane that breaks up or explodes in mid-air.
Life-threatening accidents occur once every 5.7 million departures, according to the University of Greenwich in London.
Crashing in water can have a more severe impact than on land, said Amanda Ripley, the author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why.
Ms Ripley writes that following instructions such as putting on life jackets or grabbing cushions as flotation devices are difficult to follow when a plane is about to crash land in water.
"Hitting the water is incredibly jarring. It is quite an impact. Many people may black out. The plane sinks quickly. You have to recover from the shock, unbuckle your seat belt and get up and out of the cabin. There is very little time to react."
Which is why Cpt Chesley B Sullenberger was hailed as a hero for saving the lives of 155 passengers on January 15 after a flock of geese flew into the engines of US Airways Flight 1549.
He guided his plane over the Hudson River in New York, hitting the water at a rate of descent that was more than three times the speed it was designed to handle, cracking open the fuselage.
Water flowed in so fast that the rear doors, which were supposed to stay above the water line for seven minutes, were under water quickly and inflatable rubber pieces attached to the rear doors, which can be used as rafts or slides, were useless, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Yet, Cpt Sullenberger had skilfully guided the doomed aircraft over the river, lifting the nose high and allowing the back of the plane to bear the brunt of the impact.
"The recent crash in the Hudson was actually a unique example because they were able to land at perfect pitch angle so that the plane didn't dig into the water," said Mr Barth.
Another factor was that passengers were able to scramble aboard nearby ferries, and did not spend time in the freezing water.
People who read the safety briefing cards and buckle their safety belts have a higher chance of survival. But sometimes it comes down to luck, according to Ms Ripley,
"We don't know what happened in the Indian Ocean, but it's a safe bet that the most important factor was luck," she wrote in her blog. "The survivor's seat may have been located in just the right spot. But not even that can be predicted. What is the safest part of the plane in a water crash? There's no way to know because it depends on the crash. In general, being closer to the exit is better but there's no telling which exit until it's too late."
Bahia may be back at home and recovering but the controversy over Yemenia has not diminished.
The Airbus was banned from French airspace in 2007 after a routine inspection revealed technical problems with the plane, but the government could not prevent Yemenia from using it in Sana'a, the departure point for the last leg of the journey to the Comoros.
Things were so bad that last year, a 300-member group called SOS Voyage aux Comores protested outside Marseille airport to denounce the conditions on the flight, which were said to include blocked lavatories and broken seats.
The Comoran vice president and transport minister, Idi Nadhoim, accused Paris of failing to inform them about the Airbus's record.
The Yemeni government, meanwhile, is indignant and officials said the plane was "technically sound" when it took off from Sana'a for Moroni. The transport minister, Khaled al Wazir, said at a news conference that his ministry "reserves the right to take legal action against the parties deliberately seeking to damage the image of the Yemeni national airline".
It may be too late for that.
hghafour@thenational.ae
Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Biography
Favourite book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Holiday choice: Anything Disney-related
Proudest achievement: Receiving a presidential award for foreign services.
Family: Wife and three children.
Like motto: You always get what you ask for, the universe listens.
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
Hot%20Seat
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20James%20Cullen%20Bressack%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Mel%20Gibson%2C%20Kevin%20Dillon%2C%20Shannen%20Doherty%2C%20Sam%20Asghari%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%201%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
Crazy Rich Asians
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeon, Gemma Chan
Four stars
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
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How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.