State-controlled national airline Garuda Indonesia may need to stop direct flights between Jakarta and Amsterdam (The Netherlands) because the runway of Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport does not meet required safety standards. Airport operator Angkasa Pura II recently decreased the airport’s pavement classification number (PCN) as the surface of the runway is not strong enough to accommodate wide-body Boeings that take off while being fully loaded with passengers and fuel.

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The second major disaster involving an airplane of Malaysia Airlines within the time span of a few months can lead to bankruptcy of the debt-ridden airliner. On Friday (18/07), one day after the crash of the Boeing 777, which was presumably shot down by pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine, shares of the company slid 11 percent on the Malaysia Stock Exchange. This year so far, its shares have declined 36 percent. Malaysia Airlines has not been able to post a profit in the last three years amid fierce competition and the high oil price.

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A Boeing 777 airplane (flight number MH17) of Malaysia Airlines, flying from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) has crashed in eastern Ukraine about 50 kilometers from the borderline with Russia on Thursday (17/07). Reportedly, the airplane was shot down. Supporting evidence for this assumption is debris and body parts that have been found spread across a wide area (more than 15 kilometers wide), indicating an explosion at a high altitude. The Boeing carried 280 passengers and 15 crew members. All are feared dead.

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