In 1992, Annette Herfkens was a successful Wall Street trader living a dream life with her longtime partner, Willem van der Pas. The couple planned a romantic getaway to Vietnam, but tragedy struck when Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashed en route to Nha Trang.
Herfkens was the sole survivor. Waking in the jungle with severe injuries—including a shattered hip and collapsed lung—she used yoga breathing to stay calm and collected rainwater to survive. One by one, the few initial survivors around her died. For eight days, she clung to life before being rescued by a Vietnamese team expecting only bodies.
Her recovery was swift but emotionally painful. She returned to work just months later and eventually married Jaime Lupa, the friend who had vowed to find her. They had two children, including a son with autism, which reignited her survivor instincts in a different way.
Herfkens later wrote Turbulence: A True Story of Survival and became an inspirational speaker. Despite lingering trauma, she found healing in the very jungle that nearly killed her.
“I survived because I got over myself,” she said. “And I saw what was there—the beauty, not the loss.”