The move came a day after Indian officials told the airline to improve its operations, and as delays and canceled flights are drawing complaints from passengers.

For more than a decade, pilots and judges have warned that India’s breakneck urban development was pushing population centers closer to the nation’s runways.

One of the engines of the Air India plane that crashed last week was new, while the other was not due for servicing until December, the airline's chairman has said. In an interview with an Indian news channel,