The wreckage of downed Malaysia Airline Flight 17.
It seems odd to fly a plane over a war zone, but some 300 flights a day took place over the disputed eastern regions of Ukraine, mostly at heights between 33 and 37,000 feet. That’s high enough to avoid most surface-to-air missiles possessed by the Russia-backed insurgent groups. However, that’s no longer safe, and the airspace above Eastern Ukraine is officially a no-fly zone after a horrible incident involving a commercial airliner. Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down over Donetsk, Ukraine, the center of the Russia/Ukraine shadow war. The flight carried 298 people on board; all are believed lost, though efforts to recover the body have been hampered by rebel activity in the area.
“War has gone beyond the territory of Ukraine,” said Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko. “Consequences of this war have already reached the whole world.”
Accidents happen, and a Ukranian rebel group briefly claimed credit for shooting down a Ukranian military jet using a high-power Russian-made Buk missile. Russia has been moving heavy artillery and equipment into Ukraine, as well as training pro-Russia separatists in the operation of this equipment. It’s one of the few missile systems that could shoot down something flying as high as the Malaysia Airlines flight was.
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