Bhoomi Chauhan, a 28-year-old business administration student residing in Bristol, experienced a harrowing near-miss on Thursday. Scheduled to fly home to London Gatwick on Air India flight AI171 after a holiday in western India, she arrived at Ahmedabad airport just ten minutes after boarding had commenced. Due to heavy traffic in Ahmedabad's city center, her journey from Ankleshwar, located 201km south of Ahmedabad, was severely delayed.
Upon reaching the airport at approximately 12:20 PM local time, Ms. Chauhan was denied boarding by airline staff. Frustrated and disappointed, she and her driver left the airport. While discussing ticket refund options with a travel agent, she received a phone call informing her of the tragic crash of flight AI171 shortly after takeoff.
The Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, struggled to gain altitude and crashed approximately 30 seconds into the flight, impacting a residential area near Ahmedabad. The crash resulted in the deaths of 241 passengers and 12 crew members, along with at least eight people on the ground. There was only one survivor, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national.
Ms. Chauhan's digital boarding pass, which she showed to BBC News, assigned her to seat 36G in economy class. Despite having checked in online, she was not permitted to complete the boarding process at the airport. Recounting her experience, Ms. Chauhan expressed immense gratitude and disbelief at her fortunate escape. She told news agencies that she felt frustrated when she missed the flight and the only thought in her mind was that she would have boarded the plane if she had started a little early. She added that she requested the airline staff to allow her inside as she was only 10 minutes late, but they did not allow her.
News of the crash has prompted investigations, including anti-terror squads. The flight data recorder has been recovered from the wreckage. The aircraft was carrying 169 Indian, 53 British, 7 Portuguese and 1 Canadian citizens. The Indian government is reportedly considering temporarily grounding Air India's Boeing 787 fleet.
