I expect it would have been intercepted and destroyed if it threatened a military area or high population centre.

In 1954 the Chinese shot down a Cathay Pacific flight killing some of those on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathay_Pacific_VR-HEU

If this was the case it wouldn't explain their apparent helping in the current search phase though.

> If this was the case it wouldn't explain their apparent helping in the current search phase though.

Reminds me of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007#Sov...

1954 was 60 years ago and a completely different time when the government was fearful of nationalist counter-revolutionary attacks and suspicious of foreigners who for nearly a century had been taking turns on plundering China's riches. China has changed a lot since then and I'm not sure you can take their actions in 1954 as much evidence as what they would do today.

For sure, there would have been attempted radio contact etc that would have been heard by other flights. But I still believe if a sensitive area or large population area were threatened that they and many other countries would choose to bring the airliner down.

I would also be surprised if China did shoot the airliner down, that they would try and keep "a border incursion secret during this time", as it would surely come out.

In this case, I don't think China was involved in the loss of the airliner, but I thought others might find the history of the area interesting. I didn't know about the Russian SAR issue in the Korean airliner disaster.

> If a passenger jet entered their airspace and ignored the towers, what would have happened?

I would expect them to send fighter jets. They probably wouldn't blow it out of the sky without further reason, but I am sure they would stay with it until it leaves their airspace.

That is what I thought, we would have heard a total different story hitting the news.

Unless one of the countries did shoot down the plane, and are now covering it up because they realised their horrible mistake??

Then there's also the North-Korean airspace, which is maybe even more aggressive. Could also match the flight path (give or take).