Close shave for 400 passengers, collision averted at Ahmedabad Airport

New Delhi: At least 400 passengers of two different airliners had a narrow escape at Ahmedabad Airport after a prompt instruction for the Air Traffic Controller saved a head-on collision between the two aircraft. The incident involved a Delhi bound flight of Spicejet late last night, to which the ATC has cleared for take-off, sources said. "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," a press statement from the Spicejet said here.

"ATC instructed the SpiceJet pilots to hold position. Following the ATC instructions, the SpiceJet pilots rejected the take off and returned to the bay," it said. The official spokesperson of Indigo denied about having information on this saved mishap. In fact, it was the second flight involving the Spicejet, which had to abort the take off yesterday. Earlier a Dubai bound flight rejected the takeoff due to "a technical fault" and returned to the bay safety. "The flight was later cleared for takeoff," the Spicejet said. (UNI)