Quote:Even if weather was the reason, why divert over a war zone on purpose?

Quote:Passenger planes have long been presumed to be safe from most conflicts, for the practical reason that the weapons typically used on the ground are far too primitive to reach an aircraft flying six miles high. The combatants in Ukraine have been thought unlikely to have the kind of sophisticated weaponry that could reach a target at such an altitude.


Tony Wheeler, the founder of the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, recently blogged about a Qantas flight from Dubai to Heathrow over northern Iraq: “Azwya, and Mosul, which we flew close by, have both been flashpoints for the Isis takeover of parts of Iraq in recent weeks. It's remarkable how peaceful everything looks from 40,000 feet.”


The loss of flight MH17 shows that supposed immunity of passenger planes to terrestrial conflict may have been tragically misplaced.