Its pretty hard to fly from Europe to Australia without flying over or very close to contested territories, areas where there are active wars or psudo border disputes
A direct line from Australia to Europe flies over, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Sri Lanka. Divert around these places and you fly over Kazakhstan, China, Russia and Ukraine, egypt, sudan, somalia, et al
Have a look at this map to see how much of the world would potentially could be a no fly zone due to conflict and risk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rmed_conflicts
The authorities had not closed the flight corridor and I am sure MH had undertaken risk analysis, unfortunately they were wrong and had it not been for MH370 we wouldn't be doubting their management and decision making ability. had it been one of the other airlines we probably wouldnt be asking the question 'should they have been there'
They had legal authority to fly there and unfortunately were randomly targeted and all of them are dead, through no fault of their own.
It will be unfair to use our fellow countrymen's deaths in this tragedy to push our own 'cheap' local political, social and race agendas.
JP