A Fortunate Delay: How Traffic Jams Saved One Woman from Air India Flight AI171 Tragedy
Sometimes, the smallest delays can have the most profound consequences. For Bhoomi Chauhan, a 28-year-old business administration student residing in Bristol, UK, a frustrating delay in traffic turned out to be the unexpected difference between life and death. She was scheduled to fly home to London Gatwick aboard Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad, India, but missed it by a mere 10 minutes. That same flight crashed shortly after take-off, killing nearly everyone on board and several people on the ground.
Bhoomi, who was visiting western India for a holiday and was traveling alone back to her husband in Bristol after a two-year gap, had traveled from Ankleshwar, located about 201km south of Ahmedabad. Her journey was severely impacted by heavy, bumper-to-bumper traffic in the Ahmedabad city centre as she made her way to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
The Frustration at the Airport
She arrived at the check-in counter around 12:20 PM local time. Boarding for flight AI171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick, had closed at 12:10 PM. Despite having checked in online and holding a digital boarding pass for seat 36G in economy class, Bhoomi was denied boarding by airline staff because she was late.
“We got very angry with our driver,” Bhoomi recalled, describing her initial reaction upon being turned away. She pleaded with staff, explaining her delay was only 10 minutes due to traffic and believing she might be the last passenger, but her requests were refused. Feeling “very disappointed” and “dejected,” she left the airport.
The Shocking News
Still upset about missing her flight and discussing getting a refund with her travel agent while stopped for tea outside the airport, Bhoomi received a call. The news that followed was devastating: the plane she was meant to be on had crashed.
The realization was immediate and profound. “This is totally a miracle for me,” she told reporters later. Her initial frustration about missing the flight evaporated, replaced by shock, terror, and overwhelming gratitude. She described feeling “totally numb,” her “mind was numb,” her “body is literally shivering,” and her “legs trembling.”
A Belief in Divine Intervention
In the face of such a narrow escape from a horrific tragedy, Bhoomi attributed her survival to divine intervention. “My Ganpati Bappa saved me,” she stated, also thanking her “mother Goddess” for her protection. Her father corroborated the traffic delay, and her mother echoed the sentiment of divine grace, linking her daughter’s survival to leaving her child with her mother.
The Tragic Fate of Flight AI171
Flight AI171 took off as scheduled around 1:38 PM IST (approximately 1:10 PM local time for boarding closure). Moments after lifting off from Runway 23, the crew issued a “Mayday” call, indicating severe distress. The aircraft appeared to struggle to gain altitude before crashing into a densely populated residential area near Meghani, just beyond the airport perimeter, around 1:40 PM.
The impact resulted in a fireball and massive black smoke, scattering debris across the area, including hitting the dining area of B.J. Medical College. The crash claimed the lives of all 241 people on board, including 12 crew members. The passenger manifest included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese citizens, and one Canadian passenger. Among the British victims were families from Gloucester and London, and a married couple running a spiritual wellness centre. Tragically, at least eight people on the ground were also killed, with reports of students at the medical college among the fatalities and nearly 50 injured.
Only one passenger, 40-year-old British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh, reportedly survived the crash and was treated for injuries in hospital. He described the final moments, saying the lights flickered and the plane felt “stuck in the air” before the impact.
Emergency services and officials worked through the night and into the next day, clearing debris and searching for answers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site the following morning, received briefings on the rescue and investigation, and visited the sole survivor in the hospital.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has launched a formal probe into the cause of the crash. The government also plans to form a high-level committee of experts to examine the factors contributing to the disaster and propose enhanced aviation safety protocols to prevent similar incidents in the future.
For Bhoomi Chauhan, the missed flight remains a harrowing reminder of how close she came to being among the casualties, a twist of fate she credits entirely to being held up in traffic.
