you do not ferry civilians through a modern war zone!!! Flying at 40,000 ft might have been safe during WWII but certainly isnt now. Airlines will do anything to cut costs, i know that first hand. Save $10K per flight in jet fuel adds up.
As for blaming Putin, that is just stupid, the yanks have shot down a couple of civilian jet air liners as well by accident.
You cant argue against he audio recording of the rebbles, quite openly say they shot a plane down, but didnt realise it was civilian till the saw what was on the ground.