A university student from the UK, Bhoomi Chauhan, narrowly avoided a tragic fate after missing Air India Flight 171 by just minutes—an accident that would go on to claim hundreds of lives.
🚨 RAMESH VISHWASKUMAR, SEAT 11A REPORTEDLY SOLE SURVIVOR IN AIR INDIA CRASH. pic.twitter.com/ypDObjbxDW
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 12, 2025
Chauhan, 28, was set to return home to London Gatwick from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on June 12. But after getting stuck in heavy city traffic en route from Ankleshwar, about 200 kilometers away, she arrived at the airport at 12:20 p.m.—ten minutes after boarding was supposed to begin. Despite having a boarding pass for seat 36G and checking in online, she was denied entry as the airline had already closed the boarding gate.
“I was furious. I kept pleading with the airline staff to let me on. I thought I was just a little late,” she said. “At the time, I was upset I missed the flight—now, I see it as a miracle.”
The missed flight, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 242 people, took off around 1:30 p.m. but tragically crashed within minutes, striking a nearby residential area. All 12 crew members and nearly all passengers perished in the crash, along with at least eight people on the ground.
She is Bhoomi Chauhan. Missed her Ahmedabad flight by just 10 minutes — the same flight that crashed in Gujarat today.
A delay that turned into destiny. pic.twitter.com/f53o9Rpeq8
— BALA (@erbmjha) June 12, 2025
After being turned away at the airport, Chauhan and her companions stopped nearby for tea and began contacting their travel agent for a refund. That’s when they heard the devastating news: the plane she was meant to be on had crashed. “It didn’t sink in at first. I had just missed that flight. It could’ve been me,” she recalled. “It truly feels like divine intervention.”
One of the few survivors was Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national seated in 11A. He managed to escape the wreckage and was later seen walking barefoot and dazed toward an ambulance in a video shared online. Ramesh, who had been visiting India with his brother Ajay, was hospitalized with injuries to his feet, chest, and eyes. His brother remains missing.
Woman missed doomed flight by minutes after getting stuck in traffic
“I was upset [after being denied boarding] and reached the airport exit when I learnt the plane had crashed,” Bhoomi Chauhan said pic.twitter.com/vmtdMThNbd
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 13, 2025
“I don’t know how I’m alive,” Vishwash reportedly told his family during a video call made from the crash site.
Doctors say Ramesh is in stable condition and will recover, though emotionally, he and his family are devastated by the tragedy. Aviation experts expressed shock that anyone survived, especially from the emergency row, which was located above the aircraft’s heavily reinforced wing area—often the most fatal zone in such crashes.
#Ahmedabad | Amit Shah meets lone survivor of Ahmedabad crash
Union Home Minister Amit Shah meets Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the lone survivor of the Air India plane crash, at a hospital in Ahmedabad.
#AhmedabadPlaneCrash #planecrash pic.twitter.com/Fc25qnToqW— Deccan Chronicle (@DeccanChronicle) June 12, 2025
British MP Shivani Raja called Ramesh’s survival “nothing short of a miracle,” reflecting the sentiments of a shaken public both in India and the UK.
For Chauhan, who is pursuing a business administration degree in Bristol, the experience has left her in awe. “It’s hard to believe how a moment of bad luck turned into the luckiest moment of my life.”
