Was the plane supposed to fly over this area anyway? It seems like a terrible choice on the part of the Malaysia Airlines.
The plane was not supposed to fly exactly that route. The flight usually flies in a corridor further south, but on this day the pilots received a modified route.
Now that the initial shock has died down a bit, it's interesting to observe the first reaction.
Within 30 minutes of a crash, Poroshenko made TV speech, where he in no uncertain terms blamed Russia, no further proof needed, and where hen mentioned calling Dutch head of state and offering condolences (shouldn't he have called Malaysia first?). The speech gave an impression of being ready-made for the occasion.
Russia news channels were open-minded. Several theories were proposed, including a technical failure on the plane, and freedom fighters shooting it. Each theory got some attention, and interviews.
Such, Borodai, head of PRD, gave his statement as to the absence of weapons capable of reaching 10000km in the republic's arsenal.
Video from the crash site was shown, including passports. (I think they are too well-preserved. The plane should have had a lot of fuel on board, yet there are little burn marks)
Routes and corridors were analysed.
They mentioned a theory that a plane could have been shot down by air-to-air missile.
A theory of a mix-up with the Presidential flight #1 was given due attention.
A theory that the plane was slated to fall on Russia territory, but was shot prematurely was also raised.
It was explicitly said that none of the theories should be taken as truths until investigations was over.
That's what I liked about Russia's reporting.
Now this whole thing start to remind of the Sakhalin shooting, where both passenger and military operation from US were involved.
Recommended background reading is Michael Brun's "Incident at Sakhalin: The True Mission of KAL Flight 007"
http://www.amazon.com/Incident-Sakhalin-True-Mission-Flight/dp/1568580541
