VietNamNet Bridge – HCMC-based publisher First News has released 192 Hours memoirs (original name: Turbulence: A Survival story) by Holland’s author Annette Herfkens about her survival after a plane crash in the central coast province of Khanh Hoa, Vietnam 22 years ago.

A file photo featuring Annette Herfkens in her trip to Vietnam in 2006, 14 years after the plane crash - Photo: Courtesy of organizers

The book has received positive responses from American readers since its debut earlier this year.

The Vietnamese version translated by An Dien tells audiences about Herfkens, the only one found alive after a Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 departing from HCMC to Nha Trang crashed into O Kha Mountain in Son Trung Commune, Khanh Son District in November 14, 1992.

The Soviet-made Yakovlev Yak-40 jet built in 1976 was carrying 25 passengers and six crew members when it crashed due to a tropical storm and was completely destroyed.

Herfkens’ fiancé, Willem van der Pas, who was traveling with her, died instantly upon impact. Some passengers survived the initial impact but died before they could be rescued.

Herfkens with multiple injuries was being rescued after eight days alone in the wilderness of the jungle. She remained alive by drinking rainwater.

After the consternated accident, Herfkens came back to Vietnam in 2006 to release obsessions of the past. During this trip she found out a truth about a man once seeing her in the jungle after the crash. This man thought that she was a ghost so he didn’t help her until he called other people to come to the accident site.

“I’m excited and happy to come back after 20 years. I feel a connection between myself and the country and people,” she said in a statement.

Readers can feel her incredible will and strength to overcome physical pain of broken legs with bones exposed and bleeding blood from ankles’ tears and how she struggled to survive by drinking rainwater contained in the plane’s broken pieces.

The book also tells about her life after the plane crash as she was back to her family and her work and her time to heal soul wounds and loss.

According to Annette Herfkens’ official website, the second part of the book is her return to Vietnam to climb the mountain where she faced death. Her second journey re-opens her past and sheds light on the mysteries that had lingered since the crash.

She shows that life can indeed be stranger than fiction. Through flashbacks Annette shares how she used the lessons learned in the Vietnamese jungle on New York’s Upper East Side to transcend the diagnosis of her autistic son. Whereas the jungle showed her how to transcend through spirituality, he opened her eyes and heart to compassion and unconditional love.

Annette Herfkens was born in Venezuela to a Dutch family. She was raised in the Netherlands, where she studied law at Leiden University. She now lives with her family in New York City and works in the banking sector.

The book “192 Hours” is available at nationwide bookstores.

SGT/VNN