AHMEDABAD: A Delhi-bound SpiceJet flight had to abort its take off at the last moment as the runway at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport was not cleared by a Bangalore-Ahmedabad IndiGo flight due to rabbits on airstrip, said airport officials.As per SpiceJet officials, there were 142 passengers on board Delhi-bound flight. IndiGo officials were not available for their comments on the issue."The incident occurred on Friday night. An IndiGo flight 6E-166 landed at 2100 hours. After that SpiceJet 912 was given take off clearance. Immediately thereafter, Indigo reported to ATC (Air Traffic Controller) that runway could not be vacated by it due to rabbits on taxiway. So that, take off clearance to spice jet was immediately cancelled. Spice jet returned back to base then for necessary checks," said sources at SVPI.When asked if the incident could lead to any tragic incident, the air port officials denied it."No , not at all. Indigo aircraft was at the end of the runway and SpiceJet was at the beginning on the other side. Hence, no fatal incident was there. Had spice jet accelerated to higher take off speed then it would have been hazard situation. It happens sometimes when take off has to be aborted and it is part of job," said officials on a query if the two flights were near collision.Officials added that SpiceJet flight was delayed for nearly 2.30 hours due to the incident.SpiceJet officials also confirmed the delay in take off."On 24th February 2017, Spicejet Boeing 737-700, aircraft VT-SLB was scheduled to operate SG-912 , sector AMD-DEL (Ahmedabad to Delhi). The aircraft backtracked and lined up on the runway and was cleared by ATC for take off. However the ATC, noticed that the previous flight of another airline, which had landed had still had not vacated the runway. ATC instructed the SpiceJet pilots to hold position. Following the ATC instructions, the SpiceJet pilots rejected the take off and returned to the bay. At all times, the SpiceJet pilots followed the ATC instructions," said an official statement of SpiceJet.

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