Malaysian Airlines 777 shot down over Ukraine, 295 people on board.

[Mr. Morden]

Genuinely shocked to see so many Aussies aboard. And absolutely zero Americans - unless they make up the bulk of the unconfirmed?

According to this there were 23 Americans:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/805297-malaysia-airlines-mh17-victims-first-victims-identified-by-passports-as-jennifer-vanderlei-sanjid-singh-tomas-van-kuelen-charlotte-van-der/

[Mr. Morden]

It's a somewhat unusual fight for Australians to take, tbh. The vast majority would either go through the UAE or Singapore; the flight via KL is on the most expensive side and most who choose to pay premium prices fly Qantas, Emirates, or Singapore.

I'm in Perth, and my trip to Marseille last year was via Malaysia Airlines, PER-KUL-LHR-MRS.  It was the cheapest route for getting to Marseille that didn't involve ridiculously long layovers, at least at that time.

[Mr. Morden]

Apparently American and European authorities warned airlines not to fly over eastern Ukraine some time ago, but most of the airlines ignored them because it's cheaper to fly the shortest route and save fuel:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/mh17-disaster-flights-over-war-zones-because-its-cheaper-20140718-zua0y.html

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Here's a snapshot of air traffic taken from hours after the crash, showing how flights suddenly started flying around Ukraine once this happened:



It's also interesting to note how flights are avoiding Syria and the Sunni areas of Iraq.

[Mr. Morden]

Why such a strong preference for Iraq over Iran?

Are those flights to/from the Gulf States?  I imagine that relations between Qatar and Iran aren't so great right now.

[Mr. Morden]

The New York Times has graphics showing flight paths from the past week, which illustrate how some airlines have been flying over Ukraine, while others have been avoiding it:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/17/world/europe/maps-of-the-crash-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.html#diverted

[Mr. Morden]

So I've seen quite a few stories about Australian passengers, but none about American passengers.  Given that the supposed 20+ American passengers weren't listed in Malaysia Airlines' accounting of the nationalities of the passengers, are we to conclude that that number was just a screw-up?  Were there any American passengers as far as we know?

[Mr. Morden]

Looting of the passengers' possessions:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh17-crash-site-freelance-journalist-filip-warwick-reveals-grim-first-views-20140719-zurxu.html

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[Mr. Morden]

Tony Abbott proposes sending armed Australian police and troops to the crash site, which others are reacting to with skepticism:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-25/australia-risks-tension-with-ukraine-rebels-sending-armed-police.html