Malaysia Airlines Jet Crashes in Ukraine, May Have Been Shot Down – NYTimes.com.

This is a terrible tragedy, and it has not yet been confirmed that the plane was actually shot down. Regardless, I have to question the risk management program at an airline that flies passenger planes into war zones in which the parties are actively shooting at each other, never mind that the parties have the capability to shoot down planes. This is a well known risk. See here and here. (Note: The Soviet general that shot down KAL 7 may have been “incentivized” because his predecessors had been dismissed or reprimanded for failing to shoot down US military spy planes in the area. It’s cautionary tale for all managers re disciplining and incentivizing .)

The lack of basic risk management continues to plague organizations. Boards must take the lead in pushing management to take the basic step of standing-up an enterprise risk management program.