He died at the age of 27, when on 7 June 1989, he was killed in the Surinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash in Paramaribo.

Together with Menzo and teammate Radjin de Haan he was invited by Sonny Hasnoe, the founder of the Colourful 11, to be part of the team and travel to Suriname to play in the "Boxel Kleurrijk Tournament" against three Surinamese teams.

Although Menzo was instructed to not participate in the tournament by Ajax, he defied his club, booking an earlier flight to Suriname.

Vijent's younger brother Patrick was facing psychological problems even before Florian's death.

His problems, however, merely worsened after Florian's death and only a few days after the accident he committed suicide by throwing himself in front of an oncoming train.