Bhoomi Chauhan, a business administration student from Bristol, narrowly escaped tragedy after missing her Air India flight by just 10 minutes due to heavy traffic in Ahmedabad.
Ms Chauhan, 28, had been visiting western India with her husband and was scheduled to return home on flight AI171 to London Gatwick. Tragically, the plane crashed shortly after take-off on Thursday, claiming the lives of more than 240 people on board and additional victims on the ground.
The delay, caused by bumper-to-bumper traffic en route from Ankleshwar to Ahmedabad airport, meant she arrived less than an hour before the scheduled departure. Despite checking in online and holding a digital boarding pass for seat 36G, she was denied entry at the airport.
“We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration,” she recalls. “I was very disappointed.
“We left the airport and stood at a place to drink tea and after a while, before leaving… we were talking to the travel agent about how to get a refund for the ticket.
“There, I got a call that the plane had gone down.”
Speaking to the BBC’s Gujarati service, she added: “This is totally a miracle for me.”
Ms Chauhan says she reached the airport at 12:20 PM local time—10 minutes after boarding should have started. Although she pleaded with airline staff to be allowed on board, her request was denied.
“When I missed the flight, I was dejected. Only thing that I had in mind was, ‘If I had started a little early, I would have boarded the plane’.
“I requested airline staff to allow me inside as I am only 10 minutes [late]. I told them that I am the last passenger and so please allow me to board the plane, but they did not allow me.”
Flight AI171 departed as scheduled on Thursday afternoon but failed to gain sufficient altitude and crashed within 30 seconds of takeoff, slamming into a nearby residential area. All 241 passengers and 12 crew members were killed, along with at least eight people on the ground.
Among the deceased were Indian, Portuguese, and Canadian nationals. Fifty-three Britons, a married couple (Medical Doctors) and their three children (a whole family) lost their lives.
One British passenger, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, miraculously survived the crash and is recovering in hospital.
Emergency personnel and local authorities continued rescue and recovery efforts into Friday as investigations began into what caused the disaster.
