The teenage girl who is the only known survivor of the Comoros plane crash that killed up to 152 people has described how she floated in the Indian ocean clutching a piece of debris for 12 hours before her rescue.

Bahia Bakari, who sustained just a fractured collarbone and cuts and bruises to her face, told her father how she was thrown clear of the Yemenia Airbus A310 when it crashed in poor weather at 2am on Tuesday.

Her mother, who was travelling with her from Paris to visit relatives in the Comoros, is among those feared dead.

The 14-year-old was reunited with her father yesterday after being flown back to France accompanied by the French transport minister, Alain Joyandet, and other officials. The plane with medical facilities aboard was met by an ambulance after landing at Le Bourget airport near Paris. Kassim Bakari, the girl's father, was waiting, as were other members of her family.

Bakari, the eldest of four children, had boarded a plane in Paris with her mother, Aziza Bakari, on Monday morning for the long journey via Marseille and Sana'a in Yemen, to Comoros where they planned to spend part of the summer holidays with relatives. Her three siblings had stayed behind.

Kassim Bakari said that when he heard about the crash he thought he would never again see his wife and eldest daughter.