It totally sucks. Its pretty obvious that both sides there are amateur, almost beyond comprehension. The rebels thought they were shooting at another Ukrainian transport, and even called it an Antonov right as they did it.
It defies all common sense to route an airliner over the war zone since the Kiev side is flying and attacking, and the defenders on the ground are shooting some of them down.
Its nuts that they flew right into that.
Apparently it was believed that the “rebels” couldn’t hit anything over 10,000 feet up with the weapons they had access to. The plane was at 34,000 feet and thought to be safe. The Russians gave the rebels advanced surface to air missiles that could hit planes at over 70,000 feet and that changed the equation.
I read it was a major air route that was moved norh because it had gone over Crimea.