17. I Survived Nine Days Alone in a Plane of Death

[ When the small plane crashed in the Burmese Jungle, Monika Kamphuis, 31, from the Netherlands was the only survivor. This is her amazing story. ]

Three months ago I flew to Myanmar (Burma) to be with my boyfriend, Johan He worked for an international bank and he was helping to set up a branch of the bank in Rangoon. Johan wanted to go for the weekend to the beautiful old city of Mandalay. I was very excited. I had a feeling that he would ask me to marry him and I knew that I would say yes. I loved him very much. We had got the last two seats on the flight to Mandalay and on Friday afternoon we set off for the airport in a taxi. We were the very last passengers to check in, but we made it with only five minutes to spare.

Our seats were near the back of the small plane and I was next to the window. There were about 25 other passengers. The sky looked very black as we took off, and throughout the flight, we kept our seatbelts fastened. Twenty minutes later we flew into a terrible storm. The plane rolled, bounced, and shuddered in the violent turbulence. We were both very scared. I can't remember anything after that until I opened my eyes. I didn't know where I was. Slowly I realized that the plane had crashed. I was in terrible pain and I couldn't move. 'Johan,' I called, but he didn't reply. It was dark, but I knew that he wasn't in his seat.

I heard groans and I worked out that possibly six other people were still alive. When daylight came, I could see all the bodies around me in the wreckage. Johan was on the other side of the aisle, but I knew that he was dead.

After a day or two the other voices stopped and I was alone. But the rescuers didn't come. 'They must be on their way,' I told myself. I didn't know that we were in a swamp in the middle of a jungle and that the helicopters couldn't fly in the heavy rain. Outside the window the flood water was creeping slowly up the side of the fuselage.

But that water saved my life. I knew that dehydration was a great danger. I tore a piece of cloth from my clothes and I pushed it through the broken window into the water. Then I pulled the soggy cloth back in and squeezed the dirty water into my mouth. That whole operation took twelve hours. Later I found a piece of metal and I used it to scoop up water.

At night the mosquitoes came. I was terribly hungry and I slipped in and out of consciousness. Then I heard voices. I pushed my hand out of the window and amazingly someone grabbed it.

The rescue team had arrived ... nine days after the crash. They took me to a clinic in Rangoon and from there to a hospital in Singapore.

I had a collapsed lung, a fractured jaw, and my pelvis, my left leg, and all the toes on my left foot were broken.

I still dream that I'm in the wreckage with the insects and the snakes. I can't accept Johan's death. I like to believe that he survived through me. I want to forget everything about his death and remember everything about his life.

Words and expressions:

Collapsed lung — поврежденное легкое.

Fractured jaw — сломанная челюсть.

Pelvis — таз.

Questions:

1. Who is the story about?

2. What nationality is she?

3. What happened to her?

4. Where did it happen?

5. How did you feel when you read Monika's story?

6. Why are we interested in stories like this?

7. Air travel is one of the safest forms of travel. It's much safer than going by car, for example. So why do people worry more about air travel?

8. Why do plane crashes get so much publicity?