Latest News
A woman has narrowly escaped death after she missed boarding the ill-fated Air India flight AI171 to London Gatwick.
She described her escape as a miracle.
Bhoomi Chauhan, a 28-year-old business administration student living in Bristol, UK, had been visiting western India for a holiday. She was scheduled to fly home on Thursday aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which tragically crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing all 253 people on board and at least eight on the ground.
Chauhan missed the flight by just 10 minutes due to severe traffic congestion on her way to the airport from Ankleshwar, about 201km (125 miles) south of Ahmedabad.
“We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration. I was very disappointed… but then, while speaking to the travel agent about getting a refund, I got a call that the plane had gone down,” she told the BBC’s Gujarati service.
Chauhan’s digital boarding pass, reviewed by BBC News, showed she had checked in online and was assigned to seat 36G in economy class. But despite arriving at the airport at 12:20 p.m. local time, 10 minutes after boarding was scheduled to begin, she was denied entry by airline staff.
“I requested airline staff to allow me inside as I was 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,” she recalled.
She added: “When I missed the flight, I was dejected. The only thing in my mind was, ‘If I had started a little earlier, I would have boarded the plane.’ This is totally a miracle for me.”