Bhoomi Chauhan was heartbroken when she missed her flight by just ten minutes. Now, she calls it “totally a miracle.”
The 28-year-old business administration student was supposed to be on board the Air India flight to London Gatwick that crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday (June 12), killing 241 of the 242 people on board. There was only one survivor from the ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner — the first Dreamliner to crash since the aircraft entered commercial service in 2011.
Chauhan, who lives in Bristol with her husband, was booked on Air India Flight 171 to return home after a holiday in western India. She said she arrived at Ahmedabad airport at 12.20 pm, just 10 minutes after boarding was scheduled to begin. Heavy traffic in central Ahmedabad had delayed her journey from Ankleshwar, a city 125 miles south.
In a twist of fate that can only be described as miraculous, a business administration student narrowly avoided being a victim of the recent Air India crash, all thanks to a traffic jam. Bhoomi Chauhan, a 28-year-old living in Bristol, was scheduled to fly home to London Gatwick… pic.twitter.com/NSBH7Np84J
— CDR AFRICA (@cdrafrica) June 13, 2025
Though she had checked in and been assigned seat 36G in economy class, she was not allowed to board.
“When I missed the flight, I was dejected,” she said, reported the Guardian. “The only thing I had in mind was: if I had started a little earlier, I would have boarded the plane. I pleaded with the airline staff, saying I was just 10 minutes late and the last passenger. But they didn’t let me in.”
Speaking to the BBC’s Gujarati service, she said: “We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration. We were disappointed. We stopped for tea nearby and were talking to our travel agent about how to get a refund when I got a call saying the plane had gone down.”
The aircraft plunged into a densely populated area near the airport, crashing into a medical college hostel. At least five medical students were killed.
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“When I heard about the crash, I was totally numb,” Chauhan said. Her mother, speaking to reporters, said: “We thank Mother Goddess for protecting my daughter.”
Air India confirmed that 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian were on board.
Sole survivor
British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh is believed to be the sole survivor. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited him in the hospital in Ahmedabad.
“I don’t know how I survived,” he said from his hospital bed in an interview with India’s public broadcaster. Ramesh, who had facial wounds, recalled that the plane seemed to stall in mid-air shortly after takeoff. Green and white lights flashed inside the cabin. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground.
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Seated next to an emergency exit on the left side of the aircraft, he managed to get out. He saw the right side of the plane had slammed into a building, blocking exits there, before the aircraft exploded in a massive fireball.
His brother, Ajay, seated on the right side, was killed.
The brothers were originally from the Indian island of Diu, reported the Wall Street Journal. Thirteen others from Diu were also on the flight, the Journal added, quoting Dipak Deugi, head of their home village, who visited Ramesh in the hospital. He said Ramesh, his parents, and siblings had settled in Britain. Ramesh had run a garment factory in Leicester but shut it down during the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned to Diu to start a fishing-boat business and was flying back to England to visit his wife and family.
Ramesh phoned his father moments after the crash, the Journal reported, quoting one of his cousins.
“I don’t know how to get out of the plane,” he reportedly said, and wanted to wait for his brother.
Ironically, Ramesh is being treated at the hospital of the same medical college whose hostel the plane crashed into. A doctor there said the hospital was treating about 100 injured people, half of them from nearby student housing.
The crash is under investigation. India’s civil aviation minister has confirmed that the black box has been recovered from the crash site. The flight data recorder is expected to shed light on what caused the aircraft to go down less than a minute after takeoff.
Featured image from Wikimedia Commons (for illustration purposes only)
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