Flight paths over war zones questione

The downing of Malaysian Airline MH17 with the deaths of all passengers and its crew must call into question the sense of having flight paths over conflict areas.

On a recent trip to South-East Asia I noticed the on-board flight map showed that the route took us directly over Iraq. I was aware that a sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims was been carried out many thousands of feet below us and that it was likely they did not have weapons sophisticated enough to down a plane.

However, the horrific tragedy in Ukraine shows there is an urgent need to risk-assess each and every flight path that crosses a conflict zone. Flight times and travel costs should never come into the equation when human life is at stake.