A British woman believes a frustrating traffic jam saved her life after it caused her to miss a fatal Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff, killing almost everyone on board.
Bhoomi Chauhan, a 28-year-old student from Bristol, UK, was traveling to Ahmedabad airport (AMD) in India to catch Air India flight AI171 bound for London Gatwick (LGW). She was visiting India on holiday but faced severe bumper-to-bumper traffic in Ahmedabad city center on her way to the airport from Ankleshwar, located over 120 miles south.
The delay meant she arrived at the airport at 12:20 PM local time. Boarding for flight AI171 was scheduled to start at 12:10 PM and concluded quickly thereafter, with the flight set to depart at 1:10 PM. Despite having checked in online and pleading with airline officials, explaining she was only 10 minutes late, staff refused to let her board the plane. They reportedly stated that allowing her on would cause further delays to the flight’s departure.
Initially, Chauhan was dejected and frustrated by missing her flight. “Only thing that I had in mind was, ‘If I had started a little early, I would have boarded the plane,’ ” she later recalled. Her digital boarding pass confirmed she would have been assigned economy seat 36G had she made it onto the aircraft.
Tragedy Strikes After Departure
Dejected, Bhoomi left the airport with her travel companions. While stopped for tea and discussing how to get a refund for her ticket with a travel agent, she received the shocking news: the plane had crashed.
Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, crashed into a residential area shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad. Reports indicate the plane went down possibly as little as 30 seconds to five minutes after leaving the runway, potentially after issuing a mayday call and struggling to gain altitude.
The impact in the populated area was catastrophic. The aircraft crashed into buildings, including a medical college, resulting in the tragic deaths of all 241 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The disaster also caused fatalities and injuries on the ground, killing at least eight people, including medical students, and injuring approximately 50 others.
Sole Survivor Recounts Horrors
Amidst the immense loss, one person onboard miraculously survived the crash: Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national. Speaking from his hospital bed, Ramesh described the horrifying experience. He recounted hearing a loud noise shortly after takeoff and feeling like the plane was “stuck in the air.”
“I saw people dying in front of my eyes… I walked out of the rubble,” Ramesh stated, adding that he was traveling with his brother, who is presumed to have died in the crash. “Even I can’t believe how I came out of it alive. For a moment, I felt like I was going to die too,” he reflected.
Passenger Manifest and Investigation
Air India stated the passenger list for flight AI171 included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national. The crash had a profound impact on communities across several countries. Among the victims was Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, a dentist from Mississauga, Ontario, confirmed to have been on board. The tragedy claimed the lives of 53 Britons, including families.
Investigations into the cause of the crash are ongoing. Authorities have recovered one of the aircraft’s black boxes. The incident is notably the first-ever fatal crash involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the tragedy as “heartbreaking beyond words,” and the Aviation Minister confirmed agencies were on “highest alert” responding to the disaster. Air India has established assistance centers in affected airports to support the families of those lost.
Reflecting on how close she came to being on the doomed flight, Bhoomi Chauhan described missing it as “totally a miracle for me.” She now views the delay and the airline’s refusal as a profound twist of fate, attributing her survival to what she sees as divine intervention. “My Ganpati ji saved me,” she told one outlet, expressing both immense relief and the chilling terror of realizing she should have been on the plane that crashed.
