Germany was told of the risk of flying above conflict-torn eastern Ukraine shortly before Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down last year but failed to pass on the alert, reports claimed.
According to the BBC, diplomatic cables sent two days before the crash stated very clearly that the situation had become "very alarming," citing the downing of a Ukrainian air force plane at a height of about 6,000m on July 14.
The Boeing 777 aircraft was carrying 298 people when it was shot down over the Ukrainian border by a surface-to-air missile in July last year. It was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.