A moment's delay turned into a lifetime's blessing for 32-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan, who narrowly escaped death by missing Air India flight AI 171 by just ten minutes. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner tragically crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12, claiming 241 lives out of the 242 on board.
Bhoomi, a resident of London, had been vacationing in India after two years and was set to return home to reunite with her husband. But traffic congestion on the way to the airport delayed her arrival. She reached just minutes after the boarding gate closed. “The flight was scheduled to take off at 1:10 PM. I was not allowed to board and was really upset,” Bhoomi said, still shaken.
That frustration soon turned into disbelief. As she exited the airport, she received the news that the very flight she was supposed to be on had crashed. “I began shivering. My legs started trembling. I felt numb for quite some time,” she said. “My Ganpati ji saved me,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
Her mother, standing beside her in tears, added, “She left her child with me… because of that child and God’s blessings, she is with me.”
Flight AI 171 crashed around 1:30 PM, minutes after takeoff, hitting the BJ Medical College doctors’ hostel and sparking a massive inferno. The lone survivor, 40-year-old British-Indian Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, recounted the horrifying moments inside the aircraft. “There was a loud noise… and then the plane crashed,” he said in a statement from the hospital, still in shock.
Authorities later confirmed that a ‘Mayday’ distress call was issued by the pilot seconds before the crash. Emergency crews rushed to the scene to pull victims from the wreckage and assist the injured.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu announced the formation of a high-level investigation committee to determine the cause of the crash. On June 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site and the surviving victim. Calling the incident “heartbreaking beyond words,” the Prime Minister assured full government support to families of the victims and said all efforts would be made to ensure accountability.
