A student in Bristol missed her Air India flight to London by just ten minutes due to unexpected traffic and later learned the flight had crashed, resulting in the loss of 241 lives. Bhoomi Chauhan describes her experience as a miracle.
Student's Fortunate Escape: Missed Flight Just Before Air India Crash
Student's Fortunate Escape: Missed Flight Just Before Air India Crash
Bhoomi Chauhan experienced a narrow escape after traffic delayed her to the airport, leading her to miss her flight to London just before a tragic crash.
Bhoomi Chauhan sat in a car, stricken with anger and frustration, as the bumper-to-bumper traffic delayed her journey to Ahmedabad airport. The 28-year-old business administration student from Bristol was on vacation in western India, set to return home on Air India flight AI171. However, despite her best efforts, she arrived too late—only ten minutes before a scheduled departure—leading to her being turned away by airline staff.
Her journey to the airport from Ankleshwar, 201 km south of Ahmedabad, was hampered by the city’s notorious congestion. "I knew I shouldn’t have pushed it, but I thought I could make it. If I had started a little earlier!" she lamented, after arriving at the airport at 12:20 PM local time, just as boarding was commencing. Her digital boarding pass confirmed her seat in economy class, but the airline’s rules were strict, and they denied her entry.
Feeling dejected, she and her husband left the airport in frustration, only to later receive a shocking call revealing that the plane had tragically crashed shortly after takeoff. “To me, it feels like a miracle,” she shared in an interview with BBC's Gujarati service.
The ill-fated flight took off as scheduled, quickly struggled to climb, and crashed approximately 30 seconds later into a residential area, claiming 241 lives on board, as well as lives on the ground. Among the victims were British nationals, including families with ties to Gloucester and London.
As investigators delve into the wreckage to uncover the cause of the crash, Bhoomi's haunting near miss adds a personal dimension to the tragedy. Her experience, while miraculous, serves as a harrowing reminder of the fragility of life and the unforeseen events that can alter fate in an instant.
