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

[Platypus]

Cue the conspiracy theories in 3...2...

[Platypus]

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

[Platypus]

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.

That said, the corridor as a whole would be very Australian-heavy, so this may indeed by a low load of Australians relative to other flights.

Just looked it up, KLM (which was codesharing with Malaysian) is the second most expensive on the route right now for flights in a few weeks, not sure if that is a usual circumstance or not. Qatar and Qantas both less than a third of the price

[Platypus]

Reports suggesting certainly many, and possibly up to and beyond 100, of the passengers were en route to Melbourne. Again, certainly many and possibly up to and beyond 100, were delegates for the World AIDS conference starting this weekend, including very senior researchers and advocates

Edit: The Australian says 108 delegates.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/delegates-to-melbourne-aids-summit-on-doomed-flight-mh17/story-e6frg6nf-1226993197572

[Platypus]

Why such a strong preference for Iraq over Iran?

[Platypus]

Also MH is offering all flights free until July 25th. They seem done for.

Source? I'm going to Langkawi.

[Platypus]

Understandably, mass panic at an airport would be horrific and isn't necessary when everyone can access the news in their hands anyway, with the context an article provides.

[Platypus]

Just heard on the radio that organisers of the candlelight vigil for the AIDS conference are quintupling their attendance expectations based on public enquiries to 100,000+. I'm likely to go myself tbh, and I'd like to say it had nothing to do with the plane but it probably made the difference between 'aware but it'll be cold and miserable' to 'probably attending'