Miraculous Escape: Student Misses Time-sensitive Flight by a Mere 10 Minutes

A student on holiday in India recounts her shocking near-miss with the Air India plane crash, which claimed numerous lives. Bhoomi Chauhan reflects on her frustration with traffic that led her to arrive 10 minutes late at the airport, just as the flight was departing.

Bhoomi Chauhan can hardly believe her fortune after narrowly escaping a fatal disaster. The 28-year-old business administration student, who resides in Bristol with her husband, missed her flight home to London Gatwick with Air India by just 10 minutes due to bumper-to-bumper traffic. The flight, AI171, tragically crashed shortly after takeoff, resulting in the deaths of 241 people on board and several others on the ground.

Ms. Chauhan had been enjoying a holiday in western India, and after her arrival at Ahmedabad airport at 12:20 PM local time, it became clear that she would not make it. Boarding was set to start just ten minutes earlier. Despite having checked in online, airline personnel refused her entry, leading to frustration. “We were very angry with our driver and left the airport in disappointment,” she recalled.

In a twist of fate, while discussing a potential ticket refund with a travel agent over tea after leaving the airport, she received the shocking news of the crash. "This is totally a miracle for me," she said when speaking to the BBC's Gujarati service.

Upon reflecting on her unfortunate timing, she expressed a deep sense of regret. "If I had started a little earlier, I would have boarded the plane," she said, having initially been hopeful that the airline staff would let her complete her boarding process. The flight took off on Thursday afternoon but faced immediate troubles, crashing just 30 seconds into its journey. Among the passengers were nationals from India, Portugal, Canada, and Britain, with at least one survivor, British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh, being treated in a hospital.

As investigations begin into the causes of this devastating crash, families and loved ones of the victims are left to grieve and seek answers. Emergency services worked tirelessly into the night to recover wreckage and provide aid amid this tragedy that claimed lives and forever changed countless others.