Annette Herfkens is the sole survivor of Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 which crashed into a mountain on November 14, 1992, in Vietnam. She survived eight days with multiple injuries and sustained herself only on rainwater. The plane, a Soviet-made Yakovlev Yak-40 jet built in 1976, was carrying 25 passengers and six crew when it crashed en route to Nha Trang Airport. Some passengers survived the initial impact but died before they could be rescued. Herfkens' fiancé, who was travelling with her, died instantly upon impact. In 2014, Herfkens published the memoir recounting her experiences Turbulence: A True Story of Survival. It has "received great applause from audience" and great critical acclaim from Deepak Chopra, Kirkus Reviews and other authors.
Background
Annette Herfkens was born in Venezuela to a Dutch family. She went to public primary schools in Maracaibo along with her older sister Eveline a politician and diplomat who served as Minister for Development Cooperation from 1998 until 2002. After completing an internship in Santiago, Chile, Annette Herfkens became a management trainee for ING Bank, eradicating professional barriers as the first female executive to be sent abroad by a Dutch bank. She was assigned first to New York City, then to London and in 1989 accepted an offer from Banco Santander to help set up the Emerging Markets Department in Madrid. She went back to work just a few months after the airplane crash in 1992 and was promoted to Managing Director one year later. In 1996 she was appointed to Santander's office in New York City. Herfkens also writes and speaks about the gains that come with loss. Nine years after she lost her fiancé in the crash, her son was diagnosed with autism; she now also works with parents of autistic children. Herfkens lives in New York City with her family.
Appearances
Herfkens has appeared on many radio shows, news channels and talk shows. She originally wanted to reclaim her private life after the international press she received immediately after the accident, but in 2010 she felt compelled to speak by the ordeal of Ruben van Assouw, the sole survivor of Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771. Thus, directly after the crash she made her first public statements regarding her experience on "Happening Now" on the Fox News Channel. Since then, she has appeared on shows such as CNN International, CNN Newsroom, One World with Deepak Chopra, CTV Toronto on CTV News, Kevin Newman Live on CTV News, and radiocable.com In August 2014, Herfkens and her daughter Joosje went to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for the release of the Vietnamese translation of Turbulence. She appeared on many news shows and in numerous newspaper articles. She also sat down for an interview with Talk Vietnam, a program in English on VTV4, Vietnam's International news channel.
