I watch a show sometimes called aircrash investigation - there are a lot of Asian airlines featured on that. One episode in particular highlighted a problem with Korean culture going back centuries - too much respect and honour for higher ranking military personnel (most pilots had military service then), the rest of the crew basically sat there and watched the captain make fatal errors and didn't correct him because it would be taboo, dying in the process. In fairness, that airline made major changes to training and went from one of the worst safety records to almost perfect for over a decade.
I certainly wouldn't like to be flying there anytime soon.
You've made a very good point there - we used to work with the Flight Safety Officer at 17 Wing (I was in Wing Operations as an admin. clerk at that time).
They had something called "lessons learned" and often problems had occurred due to a lack of communication among the flight crew and a culture of trying to cover up mistakes as they had feared repercussions (in the past).
They realized that nothing was going to change unless things were brought out into the open.
I typed many flight incident reports and it was quite interesting.
So - yes - I believe that is true and I hope they can change it to a learning culture where they all work together.
That CC130 Hercules that went down up in CFS Alert in 1991 is a perfect example. The captain of the crew decided to take it off IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) and go visual. Well - that was end of October and it was pitch dark so they went down.
Out of a crew of 18, five people died including the captain.
This happened before I went up there in March 1992, yet people who had been there at the time were still traumatized over it. (they were just ending their six month tour).
Ordeal in the Arctic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
p.s. this link appears to be incorrect - they say only four died
This is from a plaque that is up in Alert:
"In memory of the personnel who died in the crash of Hercules
130322 on October 30, 1991.
Capt Couch JP 435 Sqn Edmonton
Capt Trepanier JP, CD CFCC HQ
MWO Jardine JT, CD CFB Trenton
WO Grimsley R, CD CFCC HQ
MCpl Pitre JR, CD 435 Sqn Edmonton"
