Readers React: A lesson of MH17: Don’t fly over a war zone

To the editor: The tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 could have been avoided if Russia had exercised judicious control over the separatists in eastern Ukraine, where it is obvious that Moscow wants to pull another Crimea. (“If Putin doesn’t back down on Ukraine, the world should impose more sanctions,” Editorial, July 20)

Knowing all this, and the fact that a Ukrainian combat plane was shot down recently in the region, one would think that the commercial airlines flying between Europe and Asia — as Flight 17 was — would have avoided this war zone. What were the airlines thinking, that the separatists would be very discerning and could tell a commercial aircraft from a combat plane?

The airlines bear a grave responsibility over this obvious oversight, which was fixed after the tragedy. Too late for Flight 17.

Dro Amirian, Studio City