[kcdusk]

Malaysian Airlines was flying the route because it is the shortest, and therefore the cheapest. Maybe they shouldn't be flying over the Ukraine or any war zone, but if you put pins on a map of all the "war zones" how much safe flying space is left, and what kind of weird flight paths would be necessary to get from A to B?

I read (so take with a grain of salt) that airlines only fuel up enough to get to their destination (with small margin of error) to encourage pilots to do everything they can to save petrol.

Adding countermeasures would add cost, so airlines won't do that.

"Separatists looting the crash site" could mean a few different things in the real world. Is it locals stealing money from wallets (not a nice thought, but given how poor the villagers are it might be a once in a life time opportunity for a few dollars)? Is it people taking metal? Bodies (trophies, ransoms)?