Baya Bakari told her father at a hospital in Yemen that she heard voices around her in the Indian Ocean, but could not see anyone.
Ms Bakari, who lives in Paris with her family, was treated in hospital in Moroni for injuries, said to include a fractured collarbone and burns.
her father Kassim Bakari said she was thrown from the plane as it hit the water
She said: 'Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the dark, I couldn't see a thing.
daddy, I can't swim well and I held on to something, but don't really know what'.
Mr Bakari recalled how he said goodbye to his wife and daughter at the airport
that was the last time I saw my wife alive
She is a courageous young girl. She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength."
she did not yet know that her mother had died
"She is conscious, speaking well, [she] is ok. She was joking, she was chatting, we laughed together.
"It's a miracle. It was God's will."
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk