The UnXplained Special Presentation

A horrific plane crash,

deep in the jungle.

A struggle for survival

in freezing water.

And a daring escape from a submarine that sank

to the bottom of the ocean.

How are some people able to cheat death?

Is it just a matter of dumb luck?

Or do we all have powerful survival instincts

locked within us that come alive when we need them the most?

Can the harrowing stories of individuals

who looked death in the eye, and lived to tell the tale,

give us clues about how to dodge our own demise?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

Banker Annette Herfkens, her fiancé,

and 29 other passengers board a small plane

and head to the coastal town of Nha Trang for a vacation.

But what is supposed to be a short, routine flight...

...is about to turn into a nightmare.

When I saw the plane, I didn't want to enter it

because it was awfully small.

I've, I am very claustrophobic

and I said, "There's no way I'm entering that plane.

I'm not going to go in there. It looks old, but mostly small."

And my fiancé said, "Well, don't worry,

you have to, it's only 55 minutes,"

and "Do it for us because I have this beautiful vacation planned

"and I knew you were gonna

speak up about it but please, please do it."

And then we entered it from the back of the plane.

So we sat down, we were told to buckle our seat belts.

And they were going across

and then, I was restrained enough as it is,

and I did not buckle my seat belt.

And the flight took off.

For the next 30 minutes,

I just kept counting the minutes,

and the 50th minute, there was a gigantic drop

and people were screaming,

and my fiancé looked at me and said,

"Well, this I don't like."

And then another drop.

More people screaming.

He reached for my hand and I reached for his

and then everything went black.

I woke up to this eerie sound of the jungle.

The plane broke in three pieces,

the wings, the fuselage, and the cockpit.

Then I looked at my left

and there I saw my fiancé still strapped in his seat.

He was dead.

In shock,

grief-stricken, and with her legs and hips broken,

Annette painfully pulls herself out of the wreckage...

...only to find that every passenger on board has perished.

Except her.

It all seems impossible.

In this plane crash, Annette was the only survivor.

Of 31 people, she's the only one that survived.

Did it have to do with just the randomness

of her being in the right seat,

that hit the ground in just the right place

that had just the right structural integrity

based on how they crashed?

Or could it be something else?

When we hear stories of survival,

we sort of imagine, can I learn from that?

Could I do that?

And many times we can't.

Maybe they're lucky

or maybe there's just some X factor

that we'll never really get our heads around.

We know the safest places to sit on a plane,

and we know, generally, our seat belts will save us

in the event of a crash.

But this was the one instance

where the seat belt not being attached saved her.

Who could have predicted that?

There's too many variables at play.

Miles from civilization, injured and alone,

Annette finds herself in an unbearable predicament.

But somehow, from somewhere deep inside her,

she finds a way to survive.

I felt this enormous energy lifting me up.

I would just be quiet...

...and listen to my instincts, just make it complete quiet.

You breathe out all the way...

...and then you listen to this other voice

we all carry inside of us.

I completely felt that things will work out.

What's interesting to me about this case

is that Annette attributes her survival

to hearing this mysterious voice.

I can only imagine what that must've been like.

The plane has crashed in the Vietnam jungle,

you have a broken hip, you're surrounded by wreckage,

dead bodies, and here you have this voice

telling you, "Don't lose hope."

I just listened to that voice and I acted on it.

And it said, "Make a plan,

"divide it in achievable steps.

"And when you achieve one of those steps,

congratulate yourself."

That's exactly what I did.

I realized that I was gonna need some water.

So I looked at the wing of the plane,

insolation material, some kind of foam.

So I figured that could work as a sponge.

And then I made seven little bowls

and I lined them up for it to rain.

And then it rained and it poured.

Then I was very happy to see these little bowls

filling up with water.

Tasted like the best champagne as you can imagine.

She was able to survive the plane crash,

but maybe what was even more remarkable is

that she was able to survive eight days in the jungle...

...with no prior jungle training or experience,

and no conditioning to be in the jungle.

Of course, being the only survivor,

it's an incredible story, but then the survival happens

because you hear a voice directing you through it.

It just shows how we know very little

about what happens

in these kind of encounters and situations.

On the afternoon on the eighth day,

out of nowhere...

...men came up the mountain...

Hey, there it is!

...and they showed me a passenger list

and I had to point out my name.

I just realized how amazing it was

that they actually found me.

It may have been random chance

that allowed Annette to live through the horrific crash.

But what was the so-called "voice"

that gave her the guidance she needed to survive?

A lot of people when they get into dangerous situations

they'll say that they had a voice tell them

that they needed to do this, they needed to do that.

We don't really know,

scientifically, where these inner voices

that tell you to get out of the dangerous situation

are coming from.

Is it some kind of deep-seeded electro-biochemical force

that's innate in the brain that suddenly gets activated?

Or is it something that comes from outside?

Is it faith from an outside power that brings that energy

to the person who's in desperate need?

Whether or not you view yourself as strong and capable,

you have the potential to tap into these things

and get in tune with these strengths,

with these capabilities, whether you know it or not.

Maybe there is something to this inner voice

telling them the right way and maybe some people

have a better inner voice than others.

And maybe there's just some dumb luck involved.

It's possible that it's just

one of those unexplained mysteries

that we're never gonna figure out.

We all have that voice inside of us

that we can listen to,

and in extreme situations, it's always there to help you.

Just listen to that voice.

Be silent. It's there, it's there.

Did the mysterious voice that guided Annette Herfkens

to safety come from her subconscious?

Or did she hear something that was far more mysterious?

We may never know for certain.

But perhaps further clues about

extraordinary powers of survival

lie in the story of a man who reportedly

escaped a mile-high death trap

because of his faith in God.

After ten years of Fidel Castro's

tight-fisted Communist rule,

the island nation's economy is in chaos.

Food shortages

and a government-mandated seven-day work week

only serve to heighten the Cuban people's sense

of desperation and despair.

Many attempt to flee Castro's oppressive regime

only to be caught, imprisoned or killed.

But for 17-year-old Armando Socarras

the chance for freedom and a better life

are worth the risk.

The plan was indeed dangerous.

If they were caught, it meant prison or worse.

If they weren't, they might die trying.

But after some careful reconnaissance,

Armando believed

that he and his friend could pull it off.

And on the morning of June 4, 1969,

their bold plan would be put into action.

Iberia Flight 904 was scheduled to depart Havana at 6:30 p.m.,

arriving in Madrid, Spain nine hours later.

The DC-8 airplane was already taxiing to the end of the runway

when Armando and his friend crawled through the tall grass

bordering the runway, ready to make a break for it.

Lodged inside the wheel well