The apparent missile shootdown of a Malaysian Airlines jet over Ukraine this morning will likely go down as one of the worst—and, if initial reports are true, most avoidable—disasters in air-travel history. But it's not unprecedented. A similar infamous incident happened 30 years ago, also involving Russian military might and territoriality.

According to WNYC, there are 634 runways in range of the missing flight. The Atlantic's Jim Fallows points out that not all of them, though, are big enough to handle a Boeing 777.

Qantas will keep its troubled A380 airplanes grounded for 72 hours while it figures out what caused last week's explosion.