Herfkens’ fiancé was among the six crew members and the other twenty-five passengers who would either perish instantaneously on impact or die from their injuries in the coming days.
Herfkens was devastated by the death of her companion and would be left alone in the Vietnamese bush for eight more days before help arrived. How Annette Herfkens made it through the forest for 192 hours
Herfkens, who was thirty-one at the time, would have to fight desperately for her life for the next eight days as the other survivors perished all around her.
The stranger’s lifeless corpse was lying on top of her when she woke up, she said in a Vice interview, adding, “He had a beautiful smile on his face but he was really white; white, like a dead person.”
Herfkens was still alive but in critical condition; she had 12 shattered bones in her hip and knee, a collapsed lung, and a “hanging loose” mouth.
Initially, a Vietnamese businessman had been her firm. But as the days passed, he would deteriorate and eventually die.
