400 commercial aircraft flew through that region of Ukraine that day, including a Singapore airlines flight 15 minutes earlier. It was cleared by the international regulators. Malaysian Airlines wasn't some kind of outlier. It just drew the short straw. From the WSJ:
Before the crash, some 400 commercial flights, of which around 150 were international flights traveling between the east and west, crossed eastern Ukraine every day, according to Brian Flynn, a senior manager at Eurocontrol, a pan-European air-traffic control organization.
“400 commercial aircraft flew through that region of Ukraine that day, including a Singapore airlines flight 15 minutes earlier. It was cleared by the international regulators. Malaysian Airlines wasn’t some kind of outlier. It just drew the short straw.”
I agree. Perhaps it’s time to re-assess the “safety-in-numbers” approach to flying over active combat zones.