<story><title>Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk</title><url>http://avherald.com/h?article=47770f9d&amp;opt=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>slg</author><text>&amp;gt;Number of civilian casualties is roughly comparable to those in the past few weeks in Gaza.&lt;p&gt;That comparison is interesting.  What is it about planes that draws so much attention when something like this happens?  It is barely news when a couple hundred civilians die on the ground in a war zone, but put the same civilians in the air and the whole world pays attention.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Some people have mentioned that Gaza is all over the news but I would make the argument that the civilian casualties aren&amp;#x27;t what is making news.  What is making news is the eruption of hostilities in the first place.  For example, compare the coverage of Gaza to Iraq, Ukraine, etc.  There have been several times more civilian casualties in numerous other active war zones this month, but they aren&amp;#x27;t new conflicts so news agencies aren&amp;#x27;t focusing on them.</text></item><item><author>pjc50</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s overwhelmingly likely to have been shot down by &amp;quot;Ukrainian rebels&amp;quot;, who are Russian-backed.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not going to be the end of the world unless someone very high profile was on board, but it will further worsen relations with Russia. Malaysia isn&amp;#x27;t exactly a nuclear superpower. A US airliner would be a lot closer to end of the world territory.&lt;p&gt;Number of civilian casualties is roughly comparable to those in the past few weeks in Gaza.</text></item><item><author>peterjancelis</author><text>Interfax said it was shot down. Russia - via their ambassador at the United Nations - denied involvement already.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s hope this plane won&amp;#x27;t be the Franz Ferdinand 100 years later.&lt;p&gt;Edit: I am talking about the US-Russian relationship deteriorating because of the (blamed) intent, not the number of casualties or the strength of the Malaysian army.&lt;p&gt;Edit 2: Thanks for the links on previous situations like this. Reassuring.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lionheart</author><text>Two things I think:&lt;p&gt;1. Almost everyone has an intrinsic fear of flying and any accidents in the air hit that nerve.&lt;p&gt;2. Everybody knows that living in a war zone is dangerous. Conversely, you know whether you&amp;#x27;re living in a war zone or not, so most people don&amp;#x27;t see deaths in war zones as related to their everyday lives.&lt;p&gt;However, in this case, these people were on a flight between Amsterdam and Malaysia. They weren&amp;#x27;t involved in a war in any way. So that really hits a nerve. You can image yourself in their place.</text></comment>
<story><title>Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk</title><url>http://avherald.com/h?article=47770f9d&amp;opt=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>slg</author><text>&amp;gt;Number of civilian casualties is roughly comparable to those in the past few weeks in Gaza.&lt;p&gt;That comparison is interesting.  What is it about planes that draws so much attention when something like this happens?  It is barely news when a couple hundred civilians die on the ground in a war zone, but put the same civilians in the air and the whole world pays attention.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Some people have mentioned that Gaza is all over the news but I would make the argument that the civilian casualties aren&amp;#x27;t what is making news.  What is making news is the eruption of hostilities in the first place.  For example, compare the coverage of Gaza to Iraq, Ukraine, etc.  There have been several times more civilian casualties in numerous other active war zones this month, but they aren&amp;#x27;t new conflicts so news agencies aren&amp;#x27;t focusing on them.</text></item><item><author>pjc50</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s overwhelmingly likely to have been shot down by &amp;quot;Ukrainian rebels&amp;quot;, who are Russian-backed.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not going to be the end of the world unless someone very high profile was on board, but it will further worsen relations with Russia. Malaysia isn&amp;#x27;t exactly a nuclear superpower. A US airliner would be a lot closer to end of the world territory.&lt;p&gt;Number of civilian casualties is roughly comparable to those in the past few weeks in Gaza.</text></item><item><author>peterjancelis</author><text>Interfax said it was shot down. Russia - via their ambassador at the United Nations - denied involvement already.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s hope this plane won&amp;#x27;t be the Franz Ferdinand 100 years later.&lt;p&gt;Edit: I am talking about the US-Russian relationship deteriorating because of the (blamed) intent, not the number of casualties or the strength of the Malaysian army.&lt;p&gt;Edit 2: Thanks for the links on previous situations like this. Reassuring.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mindrag</author><text>&amp;gt; It is barely news when a couple hundred civilians die on the ground in a war zone&lt;p&gt;Have you been watching the news recently? Wall-to-wall coverage of Gaza.</text></comment>