Student Bhoomi Chauhan missed Air India crash by just minutes

Bhoomi Chauhan remembers being angry and frustrated. Bumper-to-bumper traffic had delayed her car journey to Ahmedabad airport – so much so that she missed her Air India flight to London Gatwick by just 10 minutes.

Ms Chauhan, a business administration student who lives in Bristol with her husband, had been visiting western India for a holiday.

The 28-year-old was due to fly home on AI171 on Thursday, which crashed shortly after take-off, killing 241 people on board and more on the ground.

But after arriving at the airport less than an hour before departure, airline staff turned her away.

“We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration,” she recalls. “I was very disappointed.

“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.

“There, I got a call that the plane had gone down.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Gujarati service, she adds: “This is totally a miracle for me.”

Ms Chauhan says she arrived at the airport at 12:20 PM local time, 10 minutes after boarding was due to commence.

Her digital boarding pass, seen by BBC News, shows her assigned to economy class seat 36G.

But despite having checked in online, she says airline staff would not allow her to complete the process at the airport.

She had travelled from Ankleshwar – 201km (125 miles) south of Ahmedabad – before being held up in Ahmedabad’s city centre traffic.

Ms Chauhan says: “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’.

“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.”

The Gatwick flight took off as scheduled on Thursday afternoon, but appeared to struggle to gain altitude and crashed about 30 seconds into the flight.

The plane hit a residential area, killing 241 passengers and 12 crew members. At least eight people on the ground are so far known to have died.

One passenger, British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh, survived the crash and was treated in hospital for injuries.

Indian, Portuguese and Canadian nationals were also on board.

Among the 53 Britons to have been killed were a family who lived in Gloucester, three members of the same family who lived in London, and a married couple who ran a spiritual wellness centre in the capital.

Emergency services and officials worked late into Thursday night and into Friday to clear debris and search for answers.

Additional reporting by Sajid Patel