Airline about to take a dive

James Garner, the US star of hit TV series The Rockford Files and Maverick and films including The Great Escape, has died aged 86, but an airline could soon join him. That's right, shares in Malaysia Airlines closed down 11% in Malaysia following the crash of flight MH17 in Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Some Asian stock markets also ended the day lower on fears the crash may intensify political tensions between the West, Ukraine, and Russia. This is the second catastrophe to hit Malaysia Airlines this year after flight MH370 disappeared in March. Even if this is pure coincidence, it's never happened in history that a flag carrier has seen two wide-body aircraft disappearing in a few months, and questions are now being asked about whether the carrier can survive. It's made it this far, but the company has been losing money for many years and its market value has fallen by more than 40% in the past nine months. Without significant funding, the airline may not survive beyond a year, and even if the airline was to secure financing, questions about its longer-term viability remain.