Malaysian Flight Down Over Ukraine?

[DHC]

Ridge if you don't know what Ukraine gains from this incident then I'm sorry I can't explain it to you..

Over and out

That seems a stretch of logic to me. Consider the risk v benefit analysis that Ukrainian leaders would have processed. Shoot a foreign airliner down filled with innocents and risk possible discovery of unthinkable treachery vs the possibility of engendering some amount of international sympathy. Contrary to the West's characterization, the leadership of Ukraine are intelligent enough to recognize the fallacy of such a foolish choice.

As mentioned earlier, Occam's Razor engages and it leads to a pretty clear conclusion (conspiracy theorists notwithstanding).

[Ronin13]

So SRG's emotion-filled rants aside (no offense), the general consensus is that Russia (or agents from) downed the aircraft in order to place blame on Ukraine? Or was this a really horrible case of mistaken identity and someone (RUS or UKR) shot it down thinking it was an opposing aircraft? Either way, my question still remains: WTF is Malaysian Airlines doing flying over an active combat zone? The only non-military flights that ever flew over where I was in Afghanistan were flights going into and out of either Kabul or BAF.

[Jer]

Boeing needs to equip their aircraft with missle counter measures.

Only if the tax payer gets to foot the bill.

[DHC]

So SRG's emotion-filled rants aside (no offense), the general consensus is that Russia (or agents from) downed the aircraft in order to place blame on Ukraine? Or was this a really horrible case of mistaken identity and someone (RUS or UKR) shot it down thinking it was an opposing aircraft? Either way, my question still remains: WTF is Malaysian Airlines doing flying over an active combat zone? The only non-military flights that ever flew over where I was in Afghanistan were flights going into and out of either Kabul or BAF.

Airlines fly over regions with active ground-fighting all the time. I haven't checked, but I'd be willing to bet there were a number of other airlines flying over that region (within range of the SAM's) earlier that same day.

[Ridge]

Airlines fly over regions with active ground-fighting all the time. I haven't checked, but I'd be willing to bet there were a number of other airlines flying over that region (within range of the SAM's) earlier that same day.

Well, a Ukrainian cargo plane was shot down 2 days before, and an Su-25 attack jet a few hours after this flight.

[sniper7]

Airlines fly over regions with active ground-fighting all the time. I haven't checked, but I'd be willing to bet there were a number of other airlines flying over that region (within range of the SAM's) earlier that same day.

Virgin Atlantic, lufthansa, Singapore, KLM, air France and I'm sure several others have flown over that same area.

[Aloha_Shooter]

So SRG's emotion-filled rants aside (no offense), the general consensus is that Russia (or agents from) downed the aircraft in order to place blame on Ukraine? Or was this a really horrible case of mistaken identity and someone (RUS or UKR) shot it down thinking it was an opposing aircraft? Either way, my question still remains: WTF is Malaysian Airlines doing flying over an active combat zone? The only non-military flights that ever flew over where I was in Afghanistan were flights going into and out of either Kabul or BAF.

Not quite. I think overeager separatists downed it thinking they were going after Ukrainian Army reinforcements. Not sure if they were using Russian-provided equipment or equipment stolen from the Ukrainian Army (using Russian-provided equipment in their raids). One of the problems with proxy-wars is that there is often minimal quality control (or any kind of control) over the proxies.

If you look at the flight path, it was a normal route to Kuala Lumpur, deviations would have incurred significant fuel costs and they had no reason to think anyone would target a well-established commercial route. I saw a report they were advised the Ukrainian separatists had SAMs but didn't know the SAMs would have the range to hit commercial aircraft at over 30,000 ft. I don't know how much credence to give to it as I heard it just in passing.

[Bailey Guns]

Apparently srg's speculation is far more valuable than anyone else's speculation.

[sniper7]

Apparently srg's speculation is far more valuable than anyone else's speculation.

For now. Im still speculating my speculation.

[Graves]

Apparently srg's speculation is far more valuable than anyone else's speculation.

Reminds me of a truck buying thread.