That flight does look to cut sharply to the south upon reaching the western Ukrainian border. Strange.

"And being a disgusting warmonger who cheers on murder."

Says the person who cheers on Assad's murderous spree...
The Kims killing their own people...
Everything Stalin did...
The nightmare now faced by LGBT people in Russia...

"Annexing Crimea?"

Saved lives. The murderous rampage throughout eastern Ukraine would be duplicated in Crimea had it not been for this action. Good on Russia. Peacemakers as always.

"Actions against the LGBT community? "

Trivial compared to anti-gay laws elsewhere in the world. Just an excuse to attack Russia. The LGBT community has been too willing to be used as pawns in US aggression.

http://puu.sh/afuPZ/49614bf8fb.png - This flight
http://puu.sh/afuRq/55f6c1def6.png - Yesterday's flight
http://puu.sh/afuSV/5e832817a4.png - Previous day's flight

And a different company flying a similar route, for comparison - http://puu.sh/afuVb/07028326eb.png

Getting progressively closer to the warzone... Yeah, there's got to be some negligence in there somewhere.

"You continue to pretend that the fascist coup represent all Ukrainians, and ignore the fact that people in the east are in fact Ukrainian."

Yes, they are Ukrainian...which is maybe why, you know, Crimea should have remained part of Ukraine...

"Don't count on that. France is willing to endure massive fines to provide Russia warships, and German businesses want this nonsense with sanctions to stop."

And look who's tacitly cheerleading now.

Do you two really feel it necessary to get into petty bitch fights over your pride? Do you do that with people you disagree with in your real lives? Better yet, can you not?

Russian news agency says the ukranians dispatched an anti aircraft battery to donetsk.

"Saved lives. The murderous rampage throughout eastern Ukraine would be duplicated in Crimea had it not been for this action. Good on Russia. Peacemakers as always."

Yes...peacemakers as always...

Guys--didn't you know the Russians in the last century have been positively FAMOUS for their peacefulness?

And Vladimir Putin's just a big peacenik!

"Oh, give me a break...yes...annexing a part of another country is an action of PEACE."

Yep. Had they annexed the people's republics. We wouldn't be talking about a civil war right now. The war would be over.

"Says the person who cheers on Assad's murderous spree.."

Fighting the throat cutting, crucifying IS? Only you would oppose that.

"Trivial compared to anti-gay laws elsewhere in the world. Just an excuse to attack Russia. The LGBT community has been too willing to be used as pawns in US aggression."

Yes, because being JAILED for who you are is trivial.

What a nice guy.

@Hellenic .. that probably has to do with winds and which path is the most efficient on any given day for fuel purposes. I wouldn't call that negligence. Also, the fourth flight you listed is from London, and they would have had an eastward wind going through Scandinavia, whereas from Amsterdam that would be an extra hundred miles or so north to pick up those winds.

Good god, if you want to discuss LGBT rights in Russia can you make your own thread?

"Yep. Had they annexed the people's republics. We wouldn't be talking about a civil war right now. The war would be over."

...Because they'd have taken over the country!

By that logic, Israel should just take over every inch of Palestinian land, 'cause hey, then the wars would be over!

And would that be right? NO! Nice double standard there.

More and more reports saying this plane was shot down...

"Do you two really feel it necessary to get into petty bitch fights over your pride? Do you do that with people you disagree with in your real lives? Better yet, can you not?"

Not going to get a dad lecture from the likes of you, bo_sox48.

"By that logic, Israel should just take over every inch of Palestinian land, 'cause hey, then the wars would be over!"

I've said as much.

@bo_sox

None of the flights in the past week on that website went anywhere near as far north-east of the Crimean peninsula. Most of them went directly over it or even southwest of it. Today's is pretty unique in that regard.

"Fighting the throat cutting, crucifying IS? Only you would oppose that."

They're NOT the entirety of the rebels! Again, you generalize so much I'm surprised you don't just outright slip into whole scale stereotyping...

AP reporter reported seeing a Buk rocket launcher in Eastern Ukraine earlier this week

@Hellenic

Those flight path charts are fascinating.

"I've said as much."

So your solution to the Ukraine solution is really for the area in question to be conquered by militants supplied by Russia? Yeah...you're not an apologist at all...

"They're NOT the entirety of the rebels! Again, you generalize so much I'm surprised you don't just outright slip into whole scale stereotyping..."

Even commies like Fareed Zakaria point out that they are. The three most effective rebel groups doing the bulk of the fighting are extremist Islamists. The others are irrelevant.

"So your solution to the Ukraine solution is really for the area in question to be conquered by militants supplied by Russia? Yeah...you're not an apologist at all..."

It would end the violence and it's what the victimized people of eastern Ukraine want.

I'd like to point out both M Air crashes have been a week or so before I do a 9 hour flight, makes turbulence interesting.

Now CNN will have 96 more months of Malaysian plane coverage.

"It would end the violence and it's what the victimized people of eastern Ukraine want."

Taking over a country isn't an end to violence...it's conquest!

Peace via conquest is an oxymoron implied by moronic self-justifying conquerors.

@Putin ... if you don't want it from me, do it yourself. I'm 18 and I say dumb things and I'm probably a complete idiot in the real world compared to most of you, but at least I keep my composure and don't express actual anger at people across an online forum. Meet up sometime and punch it out. Honestly, I bet you guys would end up liking each other if you discussed something other than Israel and Russia.

@Hellenic ... I'm not going to pretend to understand complex weather patterns, especially those outside the US, but from what little storm tracking and chasing I've done, the satellite radar over Ukraine, Russia, and even as far northwest as Poland seem to suggest a strong eastward wind presence north of the Black Sea. I think they would have been trying to catch that tailwind to save fuel, that's it. Again, I'm not going to pretend I know what I'm talking about, nor am I going to say that this kind of weather is unusual because I've never actually looked at radar over Europe before nor do I know the geography very well beyond country borders, but that's what I am seeing.

"Honestly, I bet you guys would end up liking each other if you discussed something other than Israel and Russia."

In fairness to Putin...probably not. We've been disagreeing over more than those two regions here for years. He dislikes Orwell and quoted Tostoy's anti-Shakespeare rant the other day...I get the feeling we'd be at odds either way. ;)

I think the two things we've ever agreed on is both liking baseball and atheism.

Conquest ends the war. Of course it ends the violence.

"@Putin ... if you don't want it from me, do it yourself. I'm 18 and I say dumb things and I'm probably a complete idiot in the real world compared to most of you, but at least I keep my composure and don't express actual anger at people across an online forum"

This is a Draugnar-esq self-delusional lie. Anybody can search past threads where you actually participated and see you screeching insults at people. Heck nobody can even have a sports thread with you without you screaming at them.

Moral superiority fail.

@bo

What you say makes sense under normal circumstances, but why fly over a war zone to save fuel?