Tim Clark the boss of Emirates made some interesting points in an interview yesterday, about this very thing, while he was calling for a high level summit involving ICAO / IATA, airlines and government to sort out a new system of airspace management, to avoid the possibility of this tragedy happening again.
"They can't (close airspace), but they can issue advisories and they may be a little more active," Clark said.
Additionally, he said, national regulators "may start getting involved a little more than they have. They have perhaps left airlines to their own devices".
He said he was not aware of any warnings from outside the industry about the escalating threat in Ukraine, which would change the way airlines think about ground-based conflicts and the risk of flying over some of the world's flashpoints.
"Yes, the airline industry was aware there was shooting at a low level and assumed these were low-grade surface-to-air weapons," he said.
"This was wrong as we now know. Nobody in their wildest dreams thought anybody could have done (such a) calculating act of mass murder."
The whole interview is at
Emirates calls for airlines summit on 'outrageous' MH17 attack | Reuters