‘A worrying development’ in air travel

The suspected shooting down of a large passenger plane while flying at altitude presents airlines and their passengers with an extremely serious new development in air travel, according to aviation experts.

They also question the future of Malaysia Airlines — caught in the global glare of bad publicity following the disappearance of flight MH370 earlier this year.

Ukraine’s airspace could well be closed down as a result of yesterday’s incident, meaning diversions for worldwide carriers.