Black box from crashed Yemen jet found

"The black box's signal was located yesterday by an aerial patrol, 40 kilometres from Grande Comore," said Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet.

A French patrol ship, the Rieuse, was to arrive on site later Wednesday to start operations to recover the flight recorder, he added.

French rescue teams on Wednesday joined in the search for survivors of the Yemenia jetliner, more than a day after it plunged into the sea while trying to land at Moroni airport in rough weather.

Sixty-six French nationals, and numbers of Comorans resident in France, were among the 153 passengers of the Airbus A310.

A French military plane, two navy ships, Zodiac fast boats and other equipment have arrived from the neighbouring French island of Reunion to assist in the search.

A 14-year-old girl was saved from the seas near the Comoros archipelago on Africa's east coast, but the Red Cross has warned hopes of finding more survivors were slim. A nurse says the girl is "doing well" in a hospital in Comoros.

Said Mohammed, a nurse at El Mararouf hospital in the archipelago's capital city, said on Wednesday doctors would release more on the girl's condition later in the day.

Mohammed said he cared for the girl through the night. Sergeant Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio he rescued the girl after she was found bobbing in the water.

She couldn't grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so Abdilai said he jumped into the sea.

Meanwhile, Yemen's national carrier insisted on Wednesday it had a strict policy to ensure fleet maintenance and denounced speculation of technical problems.

Yemenia said in a statement it "implements a strict policy to ensure its aircraft are fully operational, with regular maintenance in line with international standards".

French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said on Tuesday that French inspectors had in 2007 found numerous faults on the plane, an Airbus A310-300, and that the airline was being closely monitored by EU authorities.

"The plane had not since then reappeared in our country," he said.

But Yemenia denounced what it said was "false information and speculation about technical problems" on the doomed plane.

Yemenia said it would "never allow one of its planes to take off unless it was in a very good condition", highlighting the fact that this was the first such incident in the history of the airline which was founded in 1961.

The company is 51 per cent owned by the government of Yemen, one of the poorest countries on the planet, and 49 per cent by Saudi Arabia.