Bahia Bakari, the only survivor of the Yemenia Airlines crash , can be numbered among an exclusive club. According to Airsafety.com, the aviation analysts, there have been only 13 sole survivors of airliner crashes since 1970 — six of them children (including Bahia), and each one hailed as a miracle.

This higher survival rate among younger passengers in what were otherwise devastating crashes remains scientifically unexplained, but favoured theories include the greater protection the seat provides to a smaller body, and the flexibility of a child’s bones in helping to absorb high-energy impacts.

Even so, Bahia’s tenacity in clinging to a piece of wreckage for more than 12 hours, and her luck in being found by rescuers in choppy seas, remains remarkable; the more so because her account of the accident suggests other passengers may have survived the initial impact before they perished.

Although surviving such a crash comes down largely to luck, several studies have found that a passenger’s chances can be increased by common sense factors: sit near an exit and towards the back of the aircraft (“aircraft don’t go backwards into mountains”), listen to the safety briefing, don’t get drunk, be alert during take-off and landing and in a moment of crisis listen to the crew, not your panicked fellow passengers.

In this case, though, local factors also appear to have played a part, as Moroni airport is known for its windy approach. Still, it is far from being the world’s most challenging strip. That dubious honour goes to Carnevali airport in Merida, Venezuela, which is tucked between 17,000ft-high mountains with houses at the end of the runway.

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