Originally Posted by
Turbosina
It's a natural human tendency to assume that those who don't speak the same language as we do, are automatically less intelligent or capable. And 99.9% of that time, that assumption is wrong.
Blanket statement, and it's not entirely accurate for aviation.
Cultures have traits which are evolved and optimized for their home environment. Some cultures have traits which are not ideal for aviation, and in some cases severely counter-productive to safety.
For example a society which evolved in a very crowded and geographically limited area will tend to have a very formal and hierarchical culture. This tends to minimize conflicts and misunderstandings due to having a lot of people in a small area. But it's not good for CRM.
There have been extensive studies on societal power-distance and CRM. If you haven't read up on it, you should. Some countries have gone to great lengths to try to overcome their natural cultural tendencies in the CRM environment, and there are people here on APC who have worked as consultants to foreign airlines for that purpose.
US, UK, commonwealth, German, and Scandinavian cultures are among the best suited to aviation and safety statistics reflect that.