I was meant to be jetting home on the Air India flight but was 10 minutes late after getting stuck in traffic
A woman who was meant to board the doomed Air India plane that crash landed has spoken of her luck after she narrowly avoided the tragedy when she missed her flight by 10 minutes.
Bhoomi Chauhan was on her way to Sardar Vallabhbhai Airport, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to catch the Air India flight AI-171 to London on Thursday morning.
But due to being stuck in heavy traffic, she reached the airport 10 minutes later and ultimately ended up missing her flight.
Chauhan, a resident of Ahmedabad, told local media that upon receiving information of the devastating crash just moments after she was turned away from the boarding gates, she 'shivered badly and her legs started shaking'.
The Gatwick-bound plane carrying 242 passengers, including 53 British nationals, crashed just moments after take-off.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner careened back down to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1.40pm local time (8.10am BST).
Terrifying CCTV footage shows the plane appear to lose control before it starts rapidly descending with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.
Chauhan said her 'mind went numb' after she learned of the incident before she returned home. She had been visiting India for a holiday while her husband remained home in London.
A video posted to social media appeared to show the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed
The plane momentarily disappeared from view behind trees and buildings before a massive fireball erupted on the horizon in this horrifying clip
It comes after a family-of-three, a wellness influencer couple, and an award-winning hotel manager travelling with his wife and two children were reported as among the Brits who were on board the doomed Air India plane.
Aviation experts say that the aircraft may have suddenly lost power 'at the most critical phase of flight' after takeoff.
All but one person aboard Air India Flight 171 are feared to have died in the tragedy.
MailOnline can reveal that among them were Akeel Nanawaba, Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sarah, Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, Javed Ali Syed, his wife and two children and Raxa Modha, her grandson Rudra and her daughter-in-law Yasha Kamdar.
The sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was seated in 11A, is also British and told the Hindustan Times he had lived in London for 20 years.
Akeel Nanawaba, 36, his wife Hannaa Vorajee, 30, and their daughter Sarah, four, were flying home from a five-day family celebration when the Dreamliner crashed.
The successful young couple ran a global recruitment agency with offices in Ahmedabad and Gloucester.
Their shocked business partner Shoyeb Khan Nagori told MailOnline: 'I had dinner with them last night. They were a lovely family and Akeel and his wife were extremely successful people.'
Air India has confirmed that 229 passengers and 12 crew died, adding that the sole survivor is being treated in hospital.
The passengers included 159 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian. Eleven of those on board were children, including two newborns.
The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the crash was 'absolutely devastating' and that the investigation will 'take some time'.
Aviation experts say that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may have suddenly lost power 'at the most critical phase of flight' after takeoff.
The possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike leading to a double engine stall.
Officials from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are now at the scene to carry out an analysis of the wreckage and retrieve the stricken jet's black box.
Videos shows the aircraft rapidly losing altitude - with its nose up - before it hit a building and erupted in a violent explosion.
At first, the plane appears to be descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.
It then briefly disappears from view behind trees and buildings before a massive fireball suddenly erupts on the horizon.
A huge trail of smoke can subsequently be seen billowing from the crash site.
Other video clips show a huge cloud of black smoke filling the sky as distressed onlookers gather in the streets of the Indian city as chaos unfolds.
Footage taken from inside a hospital circulating on X shows medical staff rushing up and down corridors with stretchers as they prepare to treat passengers.
Shocking images also showed chunks of the plane's fuselage and tail protruding from a demolished building.
Firefighters at the scene doused the smouldering piles of debris with their hoses as photos and videos taken by horrified residents in Meghani showed a huge plume of thick black smoke emanating from the crash site.
The flight reportedly reached an altitude of just 625 feet before it began to descend, according to flight tracking service Flightradar 24, which declared the plane's transponder signal dropped just seconds after it left the runway.
'We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC, just seconds after take off,' it said.
India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane sent a mayday call moments before the crash.
Air India's Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran shared a heartfelt statement that read: 'With profound sorrow I confirm that Air India Flight 171 operating Ahmedabad London Gatwick was involved in a tragic accident today.
'It is very disappointing that it is a Dreamliner as it is a state-of-the-art Boeing. We cannot rule out security issues. But this is all speculation on my part.'
'Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event. At this moment, our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families.
'We are doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care to those impacted.'
Gatwick Airport subsequently confirmed the flight that was due to land at 18:25 today had crashed on departure.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Evening Standard
7 minutes ago
- Evening Standard
First Tottenham star reacts to Thomas Frank arrival and sends Ange Postecoglou thanks
Air India plane crash LIVE: Sole survivor of Gatwick-bound flight disaster tells of miracle escape - 'I managed to unbuckle myself... and crawled out' Air India crash survivor reveals how he escaped plane: 'I crawled out'
Sky News
11 minutes ago
- Sky News
Who are some of the victims named following the Air India plane crash?
Tributes have been paid to victims of the Air India plane crash, including a couple and their three children. Flight 171 was carrying 242 people when it struck a medical college hostel less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India, bound for Gatwick on Thursday. Among those on board were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian, the airline said. It has confirmed 241 of those on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were killed in the crash, with just one survivor - a British man from Leicester. Tributes to those who died in the worst aviation crash in a decade are now being shared. Dr Prateek Joshi and his family Dr Joshi, a radiologist at the Royal Derby Hospital, was on the flight with his wife, Dr Komi Vyas, and their three children, Mirayal, Nakul and Pradyut. In a post on Facebook, Derby Hindu Temple said: "We pray to Lord Shiva to grant eternal peace to the departed souls and to give strength to the bereaved family to bear this immense loss." Dr Joshi's colleague Dr Rajeev Singh described him as "a wonderful man, friend, husband and father, and an exceptional radiologist who was highly respected in his field". "It is hard to accept that a man with such a passion for life, and his beautiful young family, have been taken in this way," his statement continued. "His passing has left a profound void, not only in his professional contributions but in the warmth and spirit that he gave to the world every day." Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter The family of three from Gloucester were "widely loved and deeply respected", their family said in a statement issued through their imam. Mr Nanabawa ran a recruitment firm and Ms Vorajee volunteered at a local Islamic school, and was a director for an organisation promoting understanding of Islam, Imam Abdullah Samad said. Their daughter, Sara Nanabawa, was four years old. The imam, who is headteacher at the school Sara had just started attending, told Sky News: "She had a smile like the rays of the sun, she would light up the room. "She was exactly what her parents would have wanted her to be, she took a lot of good qualities from her parents. Staff at the school are absolutely devastated." He said of her parents: "They were widely loved and deeply respected. His quiet generosity, her warmth and kindness, and their daughter's bright, joyful spirit made a lasting impact on everyone who knew them." Mariam and Javed Ali Syed and their two children The couple and their two children - five-year-old Zayn and four-year-old Amani - were returning from a holiday in India, Ms Ali Syed's sister-in-law told the Telegraph. The mother-of-two reportedly worked for Harrods for a decade while Mr Ali Syed is reported to have worked at a London hotel. Speaking to the Telegraph, Yasmine Hassan said of the couple's two children: "They are so small, they are five and four. And it's just thinking how scared they must have been." Ajay Kumar Ramesh Mr Ramesh was seated in a different row to his brother, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose survival is being hailed as a miracle. 0:58 Speaking outside the family home in Leicester, Jay, a relative of the brothers, said Vishwash asked about Ajay when he contacted his father after the tragedy. Jay said: "After the crash, he spoke to his dad worrying about his brother saying, 'Where's Ajay'?" Raxa Modha, her daughter-in-law and infant grandson A member of Raxa Modha's family has told Sky News she was in India for a religious ceremony after the death of her husband two months ago. She had travelled with her daughter-in-law Yasha and infant grandson Rudra. All three of them were from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. 1:57 Sisters Heer and Dhir Baxi The siblings, both in their early twenties, were returning home to London after surprising their grandmother for her birthday. Their cousin Ishan Baxi, who lives in Ahmedabad, said both women had an "amazing aura" and wanted to "roam the world". He said: "I am unable to control my tears even now also just because I was close to them, you just imagine what emotions parents are going through right now and think about guilt the grandma would feel right now. "I just want God to bless those souls, all dreams, promises, aspirations vanished in seconds." Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek The couple, who ran a spiritual wellness centre in Ramsgate, Kent, filmed themselves laughing and joking at the airport just moments before boarding the plane. The former editor of This Morning has paid tribute to Fiongal, who appeared on the show earlier this year, and his partner. Martin Frizell said on Instagram: "I remember his visit to the studio in January, he was passionate about auras and although I'm a sceptical sort, his vibrancy and sheer enthusiasm won folk over."
Daily Mirror
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Actual safest seats to book pinpointed when Boeing deliberately crashed plane
Back in 2012, a film crew carried out a controversial experiment, crashing a Boeing 727-200 on purpose to find out if passengers in certain seats had greater chances of surviving The only passenger who survived Thursday's Air India crash was in seat 11A - and while talking to his family after the tragedy, he admitted he doesn't know how he managed to escape alive. Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was seen walking away from the site of the crash in Ahmedabad, India, and is now recovering in hospital. His window seat was right next to one of the aircraft's emergency exit. Sharing details of the incident last night, he told a medic that around 30 seconds after take-off there was "a loud noise" before the plane split in two, throwing him out, and crashed. His survival has prompted speculation over whether 11A is the safest seat on a plane in case of an accident - but experts say this is difficult to say as circumstances can change and it's impossible to predict survivability based on seat location. Back in 2012, a team working on a documentary carried out a controversial experiment which saw them crash a Boeing plane on purpose in a bid to find out which seats are the safest in the event of such a collision. The experiment, which used an unmanned Boeing 727-200, was conducted in the Sonaran desert in Mexico on April 27, 2012. Several federal permits were needed before the crash could be performed - and Mexican authorities required that the aircraft had to be flown by humans during part of the flight as it was due to fly over a populated area. The airplane, piloted by captain Jim Bob Slocum, took off from Mexicali International Airport with three flight crew and three support jumpers as well as crash dummies with breakable bones, cameras and sensors, and sand bags. The dummies were arranged in three different positions on the plane - one in the classic brace position and wearing a seatbelt, a second with a seatbelt but not in the brace position, and another without seatbelt and not in the brace position. As the flight progressed towards the desert, its occupants parachuted to safety, with former United States Navy pilot Chip Shanle controlling the aircraft remotely after the pilot exited. The plane hit the ground at 140 mph and upon impact, it broke into several sections, with the first 11 rows of seat ripping out as the nose of the plane dipped. Following the crash, the "passengers" in seats at the front of the aircraft were found to be the least likely to survive. Experts also found that the dummy in the brace position with its seat belt fastened would have survived the impact. The second dummy, whose seatbelt was fastened but was not in the brace position, would have survived but suffered severe head injuries. The third unrestrained dummy would have died. Anne Evans, a former investigator at the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, inspected the black box data recorded after the event and said at the time: "It is safer to sit at the back of the aircraft where the flight recorder is. The front is more vulnerable because that often sees higher impact forces. "I would pick somewhere which is comfortable and within a few rows of an emergency exit." The experiment, which was met with controversy as it was carried out just weeks after seven Brits were killed in a plane crash in Nepal, was only the second time a jet has been crash-tested in this way. The plane involved in the first experiment, which was carried out by Nasa in 1984, ended up in a fireball. Generally, aviation experts say that seating towards the back of the plane is safer - and because of this, Vishwash's survival has left many people baffled. CNN safety analyst and former US Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector David Soucie he told CNN how the seat was positioned, "right where the spar of the wing would go under, and it would be a solid place for the aircraft to hit the ground, but as far as survivability above it, that is incredibly surprising." Data from the National Transportation Safety Board in the US, which came from analysis of 20 plane crashes, found that passengers sitting at the back of the plane had the best chance of survival - a 69 per cent chance of staying alive compared to 59 per cent for those at the front. Another study, by Time, analysed crash data and also found that the back of the plane seemed to be the safest place to sit. It also found that passengers sitting in the middle seat tended to have a higher chance of survival, Forbes reported. Seat maps of the aircraft show that Ramesh's seat, 11A, was positioned close to the front of the plane. He was also next to a window - all of which makes his survival statistically unlikely. However, he was placed near an emergency exit, according to the plane seat map, which could have played a key role in his survival. Cary Grant, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's College of Aviation, told Travel + Leisure that "if there was a seat that was safer, being close to an emergency exit increases the chance of getting out quicker."
