Allied air tactics have evolved a lot since the Persian Gulf War, when the Brits lost several Tornado's attempting to destroy Iraqi airfields with low level attacks. Most allied aircraft will now fly above three miles altitude to negate the effectiveness of AAA and Manpads. The bonus in this equation is the aircraft has a much wider field of view for sensor equipment, and the "smart" munitions have more time to stabilize and acquire their targets.
I certainly feel for the pilots who were lost, the job is quite dangerous enough without enemy action, and zoomies who have to fly low and slow (helicopter pilots, transport pilots taking off and landing) have the worst of both worlds.