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Couple errors in the article.

Most airlines avoid Syria now, the article mistakenly implies the opposite.

And that 31,000 no go ceiling above the Donetsk warzone was a decision made originally by Ukraine, not the FAA. The FAA simply relayed the decision made by Ukraine.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/height-of-ukraine-no-fly-zone-faces-scrutiny-1405639624

The conflict is in a tiny part of Ukraine, it would have been easy to route around before.

This BBC article has better info I think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28364306

While there can certainly be some debate as to what air carriers did with regard to flying over the Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, I'm sure we can all agree that with hindsight as to what happened on Thursday, those countries will see far fewer commercial flights overhead.

I do like the fact that a little perspective has been brought back, especially when the conspiracy always crowd was demanding to know why the Malaysia jet was there, flying over a war zone.

Fact is, they weren't the only ones, and the decision to do so was mostly financial, meaning saving avgas.

Unlike the Putinistas trying to blame Kiev for vectoring them in... The actual facts speak for themselves.

To wit: Russian separatists got trigger happy after making a couple of successful kills earlier in the week on Ukrainian military planes, shot it down without even thinking about the possibility that it was a commercial jet.

The airlines, blithely unaware of the danger below and the rapid escalation concerning the two recent shoot downs, were expecting the crews to fly the cheapest, quickest most direct routes, especially those airlines that are cash strapped and not well-led.