MORVARID Poorsattar and her boyfriend Bastien Massol will have to shop for new presents to celebrate his birthday on Sunday.

The couple, who arrived aboard ill-fated Air France Flight 358 to spend a month visiting her relatives, lost all their belongings when the plane burned up after crashing.

Happy to be alive, Poorsattar, 28, said she was pleased to get some financial help yesterday from Air France, but was not happy being back at Pearson airport.

"I don't like the airport," the Paris orthodontist said.

GRABBED PASSPORTS

"If I can get back to Paris with a bicycle, I would go back that way," Poorsattar, who was born in Iran, joked.

The couple grabbed their passports and jumped about two metres to the ground. He was first, she was next, caught by Massol, a car-making engineer from France.

After checking with Air France, they were told their luggage, presents and camera "were lost," Massol said.

Sonia Tempestini, 19, also returned to the Air France counter yesterday, to collect some promised compensation for losing all her luggage and camera in the fire.

'HAPPY TO BE HERE'

Accompanied by her uncle, Frank Gabriele, the bubbly teenaged Italian literature student from Rome said "what's important is my life, I think. I am just happy to be here."

She is looking forward to spending the next month with her family here, before returning to Italy on Sept. 2.

Gabriele said Air France has promised "she will get more compensation later, when she is home."

Real Levasseur, head of the Transportation Safety Board probe, said passengers should never have risked their lives to retrieve belongings.