a day ago
Student missed Air India flight because she was stuck in traffic
A British student who was meant to be on the doomed Air India plane missed the flight because of a traffic jam.
Bhumi Chauhan, who lives in London, said she had arrived at the airport in Ahmedabad 10 minutes too late to board the flight to Gatwick and pleaded with staff to let her on.
She told NDTV: 'I got late because I was stuck in traffic. I was upset [after being denied boarding], and reached the airport exit when I learnt the plane had crashed. My Ganpati ji [a deity in Hinduism] saved me.
'I was getting ready to step out of the airport when I learnt about the crash. I began shivering. My legs started trembling. I felt numb for quite some time.'
Ms Bhumi, a business student at the University of Gloucester, added: 'The flight was scheduled to take off at 1.10pm. The boarding procedure was over at 12.10pm and I reached it at 12.20pm.
'I had reached the checking-in gate and requested them to allow me to board the flight. I told them I shall clear all the formalities quickly, but they did not allow me to proceed.'
Ms Chauhan's mother said: 'We thank God for protecting my daughter. She left her child with me, and it's all because of God's blessings – because of that child, she is with me. By God's grace, she returned home safely.'
The plane crashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad within seconds of take-off, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground. Of the 242 passengers and crew, one man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was returning to his family home in Leicester, miraculously survived.
On Friday, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, met Mr Ramesh, a 40-year-old who had been in seat 11A, next to one of the aircraft's emergency exits, when the crash happened.
