[Bobalu]

Shooting down a civilian airliner is not in Putin's interest, nor Kiev's, nor that of the Ukrainian rebels who actually did the deed.

True, no one gains from this.

Why was a commercial airliner flying through airspace they had been warned wasn't safe??

IMO this was some type of horrendous error.... I'd sure hate to be the guy who launched that missile :-(

[cynwoody]

Why was a commercial airliner flying through airspace they had been warned wasn't safe??

It was a Malaysian Airlines commercial airliner. Rumor has it the Malaysians are light on both competence and spare change. They were trying to save fuel by not diverting around Ukraine. Instead, they flew straight across the country for 700+ miles and were almost to Russia before they got hit.

A couple of days ago, someone on FR predicted an airliner would soon get hit. Only, IIRC, they thought it would be Moscow - Tel Aviv, not Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur.

[ETL 2]

It was Putin’s response to the sanctions.

Article title:
U.S. sanctions targeted Russian missile makers
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-17-u-s-sanctions-targeted-russian-missile-makers/