(July 18, 2014 at 9:14 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: I'm surprised that they'd route an airliner over an active civil war, which is what the situation there is essentially. Setting aside for the moment any possible threat from either combatant side, the fact that you'd be severely limiting your options in the event of an in-flight emergency make this a case of extremely bad judgement, it seems to me.
I would think that the flight path of the plane would make a Russian shoot-down more likely than a Ukrainian shoot-down. Coming from the west -- Polish territory -- how might it be confused with a Russian airplane by a Ukrainian battery commander? The nearest Russian territory is several hundred miles to the east.
It is not so trivial to reroute airliners from well established flight routes. There are safety trade offs such as increased fuel consumption and diminished fuel margins, unfamiliarity of both pilots and ground controllers to new routes, unfamiliarity with emergency alternate landing sites, reduced ability to monitor air traffic from ground, increased congestion and chances of mid air collisions in other flight routes.
