Absolutely right. I was bringing to the attention of the HN community a series of Korean airline crashes that occurred in the 1990s that can be directly attributed to this factor [1].

For the record, there are a number of countries worldwide that exhibit the same restricted cultural legacy. For example, there is also a High Power Distance ratio in a number Latin American and African countries [2]. See, for example, details of the crash of Colombian Avianca Flight 52 [3].

Whether this is a factor _in this particular incident_ is of course for the authorities to decide. Considering the provenance of this airline as being from a high power distance ratio country I felt this information might be relevant or at least of interest to others.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_incidents_and_accid...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede's_cultural_dimensions...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_52#Cause_and_in...

Taiwanese airlines (China Airlines) had a horrible safety record for a while, largely due to having mainly ex-military pilots from a culture of covering up deficiencies and hiding problems to save social standing and such. I would never fly on them as a result (they're probably better now).

OTOH, Evergreen/EVA Air has an awesome safety program and record, and is also Taiwanese. So, it's a cultural issue within specific airlines, not overall national culture. (Similarly, I think it was AirTran and a couple other LCCs in the US which had horrible safety culture, and Alaska has amazing safety culture.)

Korea exports pilots to countries like China (where I live), they don't import them so much anymore.