No, not really. Military planes were shot down, yes, but those operated at <i>much</i> lower altitudes. It&#x27;s damn <i>hard</i> to shoot down an aircraft flying at 10k feet, you need something like BUK to even be able to reach that high. That&#x27;s why these fly levels are generally consider safe even over (low-tech) conflict areas; this isn&#x27;t limited to UK.<p>More readily available AA weapontry is only good against low-flying targets and it was thought at the time that the &quot;rebels&quot; did not have high-end military equipment from Russia. That&#x27;s an intelligence failure, granted, but not irresponsibility by the <i>airline</i>.