2021-02-25T17:04:00+00:00
If there’s a country that understands the unintentional threat to commercial aircraft from a missile launch, it’s Ukraine. Its own air defence forces shot down a Russian Tupolev Tu-154 during a military exercise – despite the advantages of discipline, training and peacetime – just 13 years before Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile over conflict-scarred Donetsk.
There’s a stark aspect of the Flight Safety Foundation’s inquiry into the lead-up to MH17’s destruction which deserves more attention than the headline declaration that it “did not find sufficient facts” to indicate Ukrainian officials were properly aware of a threat to civil aircraft.