Student Missed Air India Flight By 10 Minutes But The Plane Crashed 30 Seconds After Taking off Killing 241 Passengers

Bhoomi Chauhan

Source: Africa Publicity

An Indian student studying business administration in the UK, Bhoomi Chauhan, missed her Air India flight AI171 by just 10 minutes and was denied from boarding but the plane crashed 30 seconds later, killing 241 passengers and 12 crew members.

 

Ms. Chauhan, who spoke to BBC’s Gujarat service, lives with her husband in Bristol.

 

She had visited western India for a holiday.

 

Aged 28, Ms. Chauhan was expected to fly home on AI171 on Thursday, but the plane killed 241 passengers and 12 crew members on board and more people on the ground when it crashed into a hostel used by medical students.

 

According to Ms. Chauhan, she had delayed her car journey to Ahmedabad Airport.

 

She revealed that after arriving at the airport less than an hour before departure, airline staff turned her away.

 

Ms. Chauhan narrated “We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration. I was very disappointed.”

 

She added that “We left the airport and stood at a place to drink tea and after a while, before leaving…we were talking to the travel agent about how to get a refund for the ticket.”

 

“There, I got a call that the plane had gone down. This is totally a miracle for me.”

 

According to her, she arrived at the Ahmedabad airport around 12:20 PM local time, 10 minutes after boarding was due to start.

 

The BBC reported that her digital boarding pass shows her assigned to economy class seat 36G.

 

She says despite checking in online, airline staff would not allow her to complete the process at the airport.

 

Ms. Chauhan had traveled from Ankleshwar – 201km (125 miles) south of Ahmedabad – before being held up in Ahmedabad’s city centre traffic.

 

She said “When I missed the flight, I was dejected. Only thing that I had in mind was, ‘if I had started a little early, I would have boarded the flight.”

 

She recounted that “I requested airline staff to allow me inside as I am only 10 minutes (late). I told them that I am the last passenger and so please allow me to board the plane, but they did not allow me.”

 

The flight took off as scheduled on Thursday afternoon. It appeared to struggle to gain altitude and crashed about 30 seconds later, hitting a residential area, and killing 241 passengers and 12 crew members. Some eight people on the ground were also reportedly killed.

 

The only surviving passenger is British national, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh who was treated in hospital for injuries.

 

On board the doomed flight were Indians, Portuguese, British and Canadian nationals.