Ahmedabad: A narrow delay proved life-saving for 32-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan, who missed Air India flight AI 171 by just 10 minutes on Thursday, June 12. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board, an unimaginable tragedy she narrowly avoided.
Bhoomi had been visiting India for a holiday after two years and was on her way back to London to reunite with her husband. But as she made her way through congested Ahmedabad roads, her delay proved life-saving. “The flight was scheduled to take off at 1:10 PM. I was not allowed to board and was really upset,” she recalled.
As she stepped out of the airport, news of the crash broke. “I began shivering. My legs started trembling. I felt numb for quite some time,” she said, attributing her narrow escape to divine intervention. “My Ganpati ji saved me.”
Her mother, overwhelmed with relief, added, “She left her child with me... because of that child and God’s blessings, she is with me.”
Have a look at her entire statement here:
The Aftermath of Air India Crash
Flight AI 171 crashed shortly after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport around 1:30 PM, striking the BJ Medical College doctors’ hostel and igniting a massive blaze. Among the 242 onboard, only 40-year-old British-Indian Vishwash Kumar Ramesh survived. “There was a loud noise… and then the plane crashed,” he said in a statement, describing the terrifying descent.
A ‘Mayday’ distress call was issued moments after takeoff. Rescue workers scrambled to recover bodies and rush burn victims to nearby hospitals.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu confirmed that a high-level committee will investigate the crash. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the site and survivors on Friday, June 13, called the incident “heartbreaking beyond words.”
