Bhoomi Chauhan was en route to Ahmedabad airport on a Thursday, aiming to catch her Air India flight to Gatwick. Unfortunately, she faced severe traffic, resulting in her arriving too late—just 10 minutes after boarding had commenced—and was denied access to the aircraft, much to her disappointment. “We were frustrated and left the airport,” she reported, recounting how she and her travelling companion went for tea and contemplated how to seek a ticket refund.
Destined to return to her husband in Bristol after a holiday in western India, the 28-year-old business administration student had driven over 200 kilometres from Ankleshwar to catch her flight. Charred with regret for not departing earlier, she pleaded with the airline staff to let her board, insisting she was only 10 minutes late, but her requests went unheard.
Her misfortunes took a shocking turn when she received a phone call while sipping tea: the plane had crashed shortly after takeoff. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plummeted into a doctor’s hostel, leading to the tragic fatalities of all but one passenger and approximately 50 people on the ground. The only survivor, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, described his harrowing escape through a narrow opening near his seat, disclosing that he suffered burns as he fled the burning aircraft. Ramesh vividly recalled seeing fellow passengers perish in the ensuing chaos and feeling certain of his impending death before somehow breaking free and surviving.
Chauhan’s flight, which she missed due to an unexpected traffic jam, became a significant turning point not only in her life but also in the myriad lives that were irrevocably affected by the disaster. The incident has cast a long shadow over her holiday, rendering her missed flight a profound miracle rather than an inconvenience.