At first, it was just another travel delay.

Thirty-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan stood near the deserted Air India check-in counter at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, pleading with airline staff to let her board her flight to London. 

She had arrived just ten minutes after the counter closed. She begged. She reasoned. She even asked to speak to a supervisor. But the answer remained the same: the boarding list was finalised. No exceptions.

“I told them I would get through immigration in 10 to 15 minutes. I was the only one left. But they just wouldn’t let me go,” Bhoomi tells TRT World over the phone, her voice still unsteady.

Minutes later, she walked out of the airport, dejected and frustrated. She had missed her flight by a whisker. Less than half an hour later, the same plane crashed shortly after takeoff.

Bhoomi still doesn’t believe she was supposed to be on that plane. “I am numb. I don’t know what to feel,” she adds. /

The missed flight that saved her life

The Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight was bound for London Gatwick Airport and was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. 

Initial reports suggest a catastrophic engine failure shortly after takeoff, followed by a sharp descent and explosion in a densely populated residential area just outside the airport. 

Authorities are still working to confirm the number of casualties, but local officials have called it one of the deadliest aviation disasters in recent Indian history.

Bhoomi was not on the passenger manifest.

A resident of London for the past two years, she had returned to Ahmedabad to spend a few weeks with family. “It was just a vacation,” she says. “I was going back to my husband.”

That morning, she had made a quick stop at a hospital before heading to the airport. But a traffic jam slowed her down just enough to derail her travel plans. By the time she reached the airport around 12.30 pm, the airline had already closed check-in, she says.

“I reached just ten minutes late. I kept telling them that there was no one else left, just let me through,” she adds. “But they told me they had already printed the boarding list. So I had to come back.”

“Now, I feel whatever happened, happened for a reason,” she says, her voice quivering. “But it was still very bad. A lot of people died.”

Outside the terminal, Bhoomi noticed sirens wailing and police cars speeding toward the runway. “At the time, I didn’t understand what was happening. Then I looked up and saw on my phone that the same flight I was supposed to be on had crashed.”

‘I started shivering’

For the first few moments, she stood still in disbelief. “My body started shivering,” Bhoomi reveals. “I didn’t know whether to cry or just stay quiet. I had missed the flight, but now... I realised I had survived something unimaginable.”

While she was spared the physical trauma, the emotional weight settled in quickly.

“It is not like I feel proud that I missed the flight,” she adds ruefully. “I am safe, but there are families who have lost loved ones. So I can’t say I’m happy... just thankful to God.”

The crash sent shockwaves across the country. Families gathered outside hospitals and the airport, hoping for news. Only one survivor has been officially identified. 

Social media soon erupted with messages of mourning, prayers, and calls for accountability. Bhoomi’s own story began circulating after she spoke with a local TV channel. Within hours, she went from a distressed passenger to a symbol of fate’s unpredictable hand.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words” and said he was closely monitoring relief efforts. 

“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with Ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected,” he wrote on X.

As news of the crash dominated headlines and tributes poured in, Bhoomi found herself thrust into an unexpected spotlight. Her account of narrowly missing the doomed flight spread quickly, drawing both sympathy and awe. But behind the attention, Bhoomi says she is quietly coming to terms with the emotional toll of what she had escaped.

For her, the ordeal is far from over. Though she escaped death, the survivor's guilt lingers. “People tell me, ‘You were lucky, you were saved,’ but how can I celebrate when others didn’t make it?” she adds.

As she prepares to rebook her travel back to London, Bhoomi says her priorities have shifted. “I used to rush, be on time, obsess over missing flights or trains. But now, I feel like life’s not in our hands. We can only be grateful for what we have.”