[catkin]

I think that's the point - nobody has any idea what happened to these two Malaysia Airlines flights and /that's/ why they should be shut down.

EDIT: to clarify, I don't believe Malaysia Airlines should be shut down, just trying to clarify OPs comment.

[jlmorton]

You believe that Malaysia Airlines should know within about 90 minutes whether one of their planes was shot down by a surface-to-air missile?

Do you believe United Airlines would know such a thing?

Air France did not know what happened to AF447 for several years until the wreckage was found.

No airlines are in a position to investigate the cause of their crashes. These tasks fall to national agencies, such as the NTSB in the United States.

Airlines neither manufacture their jets, nor have access to all the territory they fly over. They merely operate them.

Unless you can point to some exceptional flaw in the management of Malaysia Airlines, it's absurd to suggest a well-respected airline should be shut down.

[freehunter]

Well one of them happened literally minutes ago in a country at war currently. I think it's a little bold to expect them to immediately know why this place crashed.