A British woman narrowly missed a tragic Air India flight by just 10 minutes due to traffic congestion on her way to the airport, which she referred to as “a complete miracle.”
Bhoomi Chauhan, 28, journeyed approximately 125 miles to Ahmedabad Airport in India and was preparing to board the flight at London Gatwick Airport on Thursday. However, her taxi was caught in heavy traffic and arrived at 12:20 PM, just after the boarding process began. She shared this during an interview with the BBC on Friday.
Despite having checked in online, staff at the airline turned her away, not allowing her to take her assigned seat on the Boeing 787.
“This is a complete miracle for me,” said Chauhan, who is an administrative research student on vacation in India.
Expressing her feelings, she mentioned that she felt “angry” and “disappointed” after leaving Ankleshwar and missing her flight.
“We were pretty upset with the driver and left the airport feeling frustrated,” Chauhan recalled.
“When I realized I had missed my flight, I was really disappointed. I kept thinking, ‘If I had left a bit earlier, I could have made it.'”
After leaving the airport, Chauhan and her party were standing and having tea while discussing refund options with their travel agents when they received a call about the crash.
Flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad as scheduled but crashed just about 30 seconds into its flight, struggling to gain altitude. The Boeing jet plunged into a residential area in a densely populated western Indian city.
This unfortunate incident resulted in 241 fatalities, and astonishingly, there were survivors who managed to escape from the wreckage.
Among them, 40-year-old British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh made it out, running away from the emergency exit in the chaos.
Additionally, the crash claimed numerous lives on the ground as well.
Authorities reported that the victims from Air India Flight included 217 adults and 11 children, with 169 Indian nationals, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian. The investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.
