Hindsight is 20/20 but this was really the first thought I had when hearing the news...’Why are they flying over a (potential) war zone?’
Why? It is pretty simple, per the article:
Veteran Australian war correspondent Michael Ware said: ‘This is a sad reality of where the commercial imperative collides with war. It’s still economically attractive to airlines to continue flying over war zones. It’s simply a matter of cost and reducing fuel. Alas that is what happened here.’