Air India has confirmed it is suspending some of its long-haul flights from Saturday, including routes using the same type of Boeing aircraft which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad.

Chandrasekaran's statement comes a day after the airline decided to give an interim payment to the kin of the victims and survivors of the plane crash.

Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said on Friday that the tragic crash of Air India’s flight AI 171 in Ahmedabad is “one of the darkest days in the Tata Group’s history”. He said this in a message to employees,