Bhoomi Chauhan, who missed the ill-fated Air India flight by 10 minutes on Thursday, “thanked God” for her lucky escape.

“I am still shivering thinking about my lucky escape,” Chauhan, who missed the flight because of heavy traffic, told reporters.

“I am completely devastated after hearing about the loss (of lives). My body is literally shivering. I am not able to talk. My mind is totally blank now after hearing all that has happened,” she said.

She left Ahmedabad airport around 1.30pm after she missed the flight. The London-bound Air India flight took off around 1.38pm and crashed almost immediately. “I am thankful to God. My Ganpati Bappa saved me,” she said.

Chauhan, who lives with her husband in London, was in India for a vacation after two years. “Just because of those 10 minutes, I could not board the flight. I don’t know how to explain this,” she said.

Fatal homecoming

But 40-year-old Renjitha Gopakumaran Nair from Kerala was not lucky as she was among those killed in the crash. Her dream to move into her newly constructed home at Pullad in Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala with her elderly mother and two school-going children was shattered.

Nair was a nurse in the UK and had come down to Pullad to accept the state government’s job offer as a nursing staff. She wanted to wrap up her job in the UK and return to Kerala.

Nair had taken a train from Pathanamthitta to Chennai on Wednesday, and from there she took a flight to Ahmedabad. She wanted to take a flight from a non-busy sector like Ahmedabad to London Gatwick as ticket prices in this sector are comparatively cheaper.

She was hoping to move into her new house soon, which is in the final stage of construction. Before leaving for the UK, she ensured that at least two rooms in the new house were completed so that she could perform the housewarming rituals.

K. Sivadasan Nair, former Congress MLA from Aranmula, said Nair had come to Kerala on four days’ leave. “She wanted to complete the paperwork needed to accept the state government’s job offer. She did that and decided to return to the UK to wrap up the work there.

“Nair, a single mother of two children — Induchoodan, 15, and Rithika, 13 — had also been taking care of her elderly mother, Thulasi. Her father is no more. She had worked in West Asia as a nurse for a few years. She went to the UK only six months ago and was looking forward to settling down in Thiruvalla when this tragedy struck,” said Sivadasan.

Nair was a nurse in Oman for eight years before moving to the UK for work. She was very happy when she got the “unexpected” job offer from the Kerala State Health Services. Nair has two brothers.

CM first, then family

About 1,600km from Kerala, a Nagpur-based man said his daughter, her one-and-a-half-year-old son and her mother-in-law were on board the flight. Talking to PTI, Manish Kamdar said he had spoken to his daughter, Yasha Modha, who lives in Ahmedabad, in the morning, but was now clueless about her and her two members’ status following the crash.

Kamdar said that apart from Yasha, her one-and-a-half-year-old son Rudra and her mother-in-law were on board the flight. “I spoke to my daughter around 9am today. But now, my family and I do not know anything about the condition of the passengers,” he said.

“I am heading to Ahmedabad by road. My son-in-law is waiting outside the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and is clueless about their status. But he is not allowed inside. People there are being told that they will be allowed to enter only after (Gujarat) chief minister visits the hospital,” Kamdar said.

Yasha’s father-in-law, a resident of the UK, passed away in Ahmedabad a month ago and the family was going to attend his prayer meeting scheduled on June 22 there.

Traders aboard

At least five people from Rajasthan, including four from Udaipur district, were among those on board the aircraft. Among the passengers were Shubh and Shagun Modi, the son and daughter of marble businessman Sanjeev Modi from Udaipur. The siblings, both MBA graduates, were involved in their father’s business and were travelling to London for leisure, officials said.

District collector Namit Mehta visited their house in Saheli Nagar to meet the family. “Chief minister Bhajanlal Sharma has spoken to the family of the victims and assured them all possible assistance,” Mehta told reporters.

Vardichand Menaria, a native of Rundeda village in Vallabhnagar, Udaipur district, was also on board. He had recently returned from London and was travelling back along with his associate Prakash Menaria of Rohida village. Both worked in the culinary sector in the UK.

Khushboo Rajpurohit, a woman from Araba in Barmer district, was one of the passengers on the flight.

Additional reporting by PTI