Bhoomi Chauhan, a resident of Gujarat’s Bharuch, narrowly escaped death when she missed Thursday’s ill-fated flight which crashed, claiming the lives of 241 people on board the Boeing 787-8, Air India flight 171, including 12 crew members, Air India confirmed post-midnight on Friday. While speaking to ANI on Friday, Chauhan recounted her experience, “We arrived at the check-in gate 10 minutes late, but they didn’t allow me, and I returned. They said that it would delay the flight further. I was late because of traffic in the Ahmedabad city area. When I came to know that the flight had crashed, I was totally numb. I thank my mother Goddess that I am safe, but the incident is absolutely terrifying.”
Chauhan’s mother attributed her daughter’s survival to the blessings of the Mother Goddess, telling ANI, “We thank Mother Goddess for protecting my daughter. She left her child with me, and it’s all because of the Mother Goddess blessings; because of that child, she is with me..”
Chauhan’s father explained that traffic congestion had caused them to arrive late at the airport, and despite their requests, they were not allowed to board the flight. “…We arrived at the airport late because of traffic. We requested, but they didn’t allow us. When we came out of the airport, we received the news that the plane had crashed.” Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad and reviewed the ground situation, a day after the AI-171 flight bound for London Gatwick crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad International Airport here.
The Prime Minister arrived in the city this morning and proceeded to the site where the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed. He was briefed by officials on the situation. Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, State Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi and other officials accompanied PM Modi during his visit.PM Modi then proceeded to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to meet with those injured in the mishap. Upon his arrival in the city today, PM Modi was received by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Union Ministers Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu and CR Paatil. There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national on board the crashed plane. Miraculously, one person, a British national of Indian origin, survived the crash, airline authorities said.
The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours. According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls made by ATC. Immediately after departing Runway 23, the aircraft crashed outside the airport perimeter. A formal investigation has been launched by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the deadly crash of Air India flight 171 that killed 241 people onboard. The government was also constituting a high-level committee of people with expertise in multiple disciplines to examine the crash incident and devise ways to strengthen aviation safety by preventing such incidents in the future.
