She missed her flight by just 10 minutes.
An hour later, it was gone.
Bhoomi Chauhan, 28, was supposed to be on Air India flight AI171, traveling from Ahmedabad to London. But a morning of heavy traffic and frustrating delays threw everything off.
“We were stuck on the road for way too long,” Bhoomi said. “By the time we got to the airport, I only had about 50 minutes before takeoff.”
That window wasn’t enough. Airline staff refused to let her board the flight, saying she had arrived too late. Furious and overwhelmed, Bhoomi and her family stormed out of the airport.
“We were livid. We blamed our driver. I remember walking out of the terminal so upset, feeling like everything had gone wrong,” she said.
But what happened next shook her to the core.
Just shortly after takeoff, the plane she was meant to be on—flight AI171—crashed. All 241 people onboard lost their lives.
Bhoomi, still processing the chaos of her morning, learned of the tragedy only hours later. The disbelief quickly turned to a chilling realization.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I had been so angry about missing that flight. But then I just stood there thinking… that could’ve been me.”
In the days that followed, Bhoomi said she struggled with a complex mix of emotions—shock, sorrow, gratitude, and guilt. What began as a terrible morning full of anger had become something she now describes as “nothing short of a miracle.”
“I still get goosebumps thinking about it,” she said quietly. “That 10-minute delay… it saved my life.”
