Bhoomi Chauhan, a business administration student who was meant to be on the ill-fated Air India plane that crashed with 242 people, has recounted how she missed the flight by just 10 minutes.
Chauhan, who lives in Bristol with her husband, was in India for a holiday and was turned back by the airline staff after arriving at the Ahmedabad Airport less than an hour before departure.
The Air India plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad, a western city in India, shortly after take-off.
Only Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national, who was in seat 11A of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane, survived the crash.
For Chauhan, who was assigned to economy class seat 36G on the Air India, missing death was like a miracle.
She has travelled from Ankleshwar, a city in India, which is 201 km south of Ahmedabad, the city where the airport is located.
But the traffic gridlock in the city delayed her journey to the airport.
Speaking with BBC’s Gujarati service, she said she arrived at the airport at 12:20 pm local time — 10 minutes after boarding was due to commence.
She added that despite having checked in online, the airline staff refused to allow her to complete the boarding process at the airport.
“This is totally a miracle for me,” she said.
“When I missed the flight, I was dejected. Only thing that I had in mind was, ‘If I had started a little early, I would have boarded the plane’.
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“I requested airline staff to allow me inside, as I am 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 added that she left the airport in frustration and got very angry with the driver who drove her.
“We left the airport and stood at a place to drink tea, and after a while, before leaving… we were talking to the travel agent about how to get a refund for the ticket,” she added.
“There, I got a call that the plane had gone down.”
