Tag: Air India

Bhoomi Chauhan remembers being angry and frustrated. Bumper-to-bumper traffic had delayed her car journey to Ahmedabad airport – so much so that she missed her Air India flight to London Gatwick by just 10 minutes.

Ms Chauhan, a business administration student who lives in Bristol with her husband, had been visiting western India for a holiday.

The 28-year-old was due to fly home on AI171 on Thursday, which crashed shortly after take-off, killing 241 people on board and more on the ground.

But after arriving at the airport less than an hour before departure, airline staff turned her away.

“We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration,” she recalls. “I was very disappointed.

“We left the airport and stood at a place to drink tea and after a while, before leaving… we were talking to the travel agent about how to get a refund for the ticket.

“There, I got a call that the plane had gone down.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Gujarati service, she adds: “This is totally a miracle for me.”

Ms Chauhan says she arrived at the airport at 12:20 PM local time, 10 minutes after boarding was due to commence.

Her digital boarding pass, seen by BBC News, shows her assigned to economy class seat 36G.

But despite having checked in online, she says airline staff would not allow her to complete the process at the airport.

Read Also: ‘I walked out of rubble’: Survivor on how he escaped Air India wreckage

She had travelled from Ankleshwar – 201km (125 miles) south of Ahmedabad – before being held up in Ahmedabad’s city centre traffic.

Ms Chauhan says: “When I missed the flight, I was dejected. Only thing that I had in mind was, ‘If I had started a little early, I would have boarded the plane’.

“I requested airline staff to allow me inside as I am only 10 minutes [late]. I told them that I am the last passenger and so please allow me to board the plane, but they did not allow me.”

The Gatwick flight took off as scheduled on Thursday afternoon, but appeared to struggle to gain altitude and crashed about 30 seconds into the flight.

The plane hit a residential area, killing 241 passengers and 12 crew members. At least eight people on the ground are so far known to have died.

The British man who was the sole survivor of Thursday’s Air India plane crash said he managed to escape the wreckage through an opening in the fuselage.

“I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out,” Vishwashkumar Ramesh told Indian state media DD News.

Mr Ramesh, 40, was in seat 11A on the London-bound Boeing 787 flight when it went down shortly after take off in Ahmedabad, western India on Thursday.

Air India said all other passengers and crew were killed – including 169 Indian nationals and 52 British nationals. More than 200 bodies have been recovered so far, though it is unclear how many were passengers and how many were from the ground.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said the lights inside the aircraft “started flickering” moments after take off.

Within five to 10 seconds, it felt like the plane was “stuck in the air”, he said.

Read Also: One survives, 241 die in Air India crash Tinubu condoles with Modi, victims

“The lights started flickering green and white…suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.”

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a building used as accommodation for doctors at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital.

Mr Ramesh told the Indian broadcaster he could not believe that he came out alive.

“I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the air hostesses, and two people I saw near me,” he said.

“For a moment, I felt like I was going to die too, but when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realised I was alive.

“I still can’t believe how I survived. I walked out of the rubble.”

An Air India Limited Boeing Co. 787 aircraft, travelling from Ahmedabad en route to London’s Gatwick Airport, has crashed.

Local media on Thursday reported that Flight 171 crashed shortly after takeoff. The police authorities stated that the flight was carrying approximately 242 passengers and crew.

Further analysis of the incident indicated that the aircraft had reached an altitude of 625 feet at a speed of 174 kilometres per hour, before crashing into accommodation  used by doctors.

There were 169 Indian nationals on the flight, as well as 53 Britons, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals, Air India says

Tracking website Flightradar24 says it received the last signal from the aircraft at 625 feet (190m) “just seconds after take off”

Air India’s fleet comprises 128 aircraft from Airbus SE and Boeing, according to the carrier’s website.

Read Also: Two brothers en route India arrested at Lagos airport with cocaine

This Air India crash is the first time a Boeing 787 aircraft has come down like this.

The model was launched 14 years ago and just six few weeks ago the planemaker lauded the fact the model, also known as the Dreamliner, has reached the milestone of carrying 1bn passengers.

To mark that occasion the company said the global 787 fleet of more than 1,175 airplanes has flown nearly 5 million flights covering more than 30 million flight hours.

The crash is a major blow for the company which has been struggling to overcome a range of problems, including fatal crashes, with its 737 programmes.

It will be another test for CEO Kelly Ortberg who is about to mark his first anniversary in the job.

He was brought in to try and help the US planemaker sort out a range of problems that were raising questions about its future.

(BBC)