The university student narrowly missed her flight, which in retrospect proved to
be a blessing, arriving just a few minutes after boarding was supposed to start.
Bhoomi Chauhan was among the 242 passengers booked on Air India Flight 171
(Al171), which departed from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International
Airport on June 12, en route to London Gatwick. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner
tragically crashed just minutes after takeoff, claiming the lives of hundreds on the
ground and nearly all of the passengers aboard.
At the time, Chauhan was frustrated, as she arrived at the airport less than an hour
before the scheduled departure, only to find that check-in had already closed.
What initially seemed like a travel nightmare turned out to be a twist of fate that
saved her life.
Chauhan’s car had been stuck in heavy traffic while traveling through the heart of
the city. She had been traveling from Ankleshwar, about 200 kilometers south of
Ahmedabad. She reached the airport at 12:20 p.m., just ten minutes after boarding
was supposed to begin.
Although she had an economy boarding pass for seat 36G and had checked in
online, she was not allowed to complete the check-in process at the airport.
Chauhan recalled pleading with airline staff to let her board, explaining that she
was only ten minutes late and might be the last person to board. However, they
refused to allow her on the flight.
“We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration. I was very
disappointed,” she said. Chauhan, who had been on vacation in western India, was
returning home to the UK, where she lives with her husband and is studying
business administration.
“When I missed the flight, I was dejected. The only thing I kept thinking was, ‘If I
had started a little earlier, I would have boarded the plane,” she recalled.
After being turned away at the airport, Chauhan and her companions decided to
stop for tea nearby. While there, they began discussing how to secure a refund for
their missed ticket with their travel agent. It was during this conversation that they
first learned about the crash.
The full weight of what she had narrowly avoided sank in. “This is totally a miracle
for me,” she said. Flight All71 had taken off shortly after 1:30 p.m. local time, and just
five minutes later, it went down, leaving behind a trail of devastation.
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