Annette Herfkens Spent 8 days in the Mountains and contemplated Cannibalism

Annette Herfkens' fiancé persuaded her to board a small, old plane in Vietnam on November 14, 1992.

Willem "Pasje" van der Pas, Herfkens' fiancé, was eager to fly her to the seaside resort of Nha Trang, Vietnam, for a five-day romantic vacation.

"I told him I didn't want to board the plane." Herfkens recalled this in an interview she gave in 2017. "He was aware of my claustrophobia." He said it would only take 20 minutes. 'All right,' I said.

In truth, van der Pas had lied to Herfkens about the flight being 20 minutes long in order to get her on board. It turned out to be the worst decision he had ever made. The couple, both successful Dutch bankers, had been together for 13 years but had been living in different countries for the last six months.

The Russian-made plane, carrying 24 passengers and six crew, suddenly dropped fifty minutes into the flight while flying over mountainous terrain. 

"There was another plummet, another loud thud, and everyone was screaming," recalls Herfkens. "I stared at him, reached for his hand, he reached for mine, we exchanged glances, and then everything went black."

The plane flipped upside down after colliding with some trees and then a mountain. Herfkens was flung around like she was "in a dryer" since she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. But she made it. She awoke with a seat on top of her and a dead body strapped inside. She found van der Pas by removing the seat.

She woke up in the wreckage

"He had a wonderful smile on his face, but he was incredibly white; white, like a dead person," she said.

Herfkens was not the only survivor of the crash. She could hear moans from other people who had been seriously harmed. One of them, a Vietnamese businessman, became her friend. According to her statement to the New York Post in 2016, the businessman tried to console her and even handed her some of his clothing because her skirt had been ripped off.

But the businessman died soon after, and all the other screams ceased. Herfkens was the only survivor in the wreckage, surrounded by dead victims. She had a damaged hip and leg, a collapsed lung, and a broken jaw, with the bone showing through a laceration on her chin. To cope with her collapsed lung, she employed yoga breathing methods.

Herfkens drank the rainwater she collected using insulation in the wings of the aircraft. Despite the fact that she found herself staring at the businessman and contemplating the survivors of the 1972 Andes plane tragedy who had eaten deceased passengers to live, she refrained from eating.

The Families Accepted Their Loss

As the days went by, Herfkens' and her fiance's families in the Netherlands came to terms with the fact that the pair had likely passed away. An obituary was published in the newspaper. Her manager wrote a letter of condolence to her family.

Jaime Lupa, a friend and coworker of Herfkens, didn't accept that she had passed away.

According to Jaime; "When I promised Annette's father before I left: "I will bring your daughter back alive," he became furious. You are an idiot, he exclaimed. Get real!"

Herfkens thought she was going to die on her sixth day in the jungle. She had a near-death experience on the seventh day.

Rescue

However, a Vietnamese policeman showed up at the crash site on the eighth day. He had brought body bags along with a handful of other men, not expecting to find any survivors.

The rescuers didn't expect to see anyone alive

Herfkens was transported down the mountain on a canvas sheet positioned between two sticks. She was brought to the hospital, where her extensive rehabilitation process began.

Herfkens attended van der Pas's funeral in the Netherlands in December while being wheeled into the church. She was able to walk once more by New Year's Eve, and in February 1993, she went back to work in banking. She experienced a phase of fury because she missed her fiance.

Later Life

Years later,Herfkens married Lupa, the coworker who had traveled to Vietnam in search of her. They moved to New York and had two kids named Joosje and Max, but eventually got divorced.

Source: vocel media