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12.1.10 Finally, reflect on the usefulness and the limitations of doing an exploratory project like this, given your specific learning and teach- ing environment. If there are limitations, how can you overcome them?
Project 12.2: Culture and Airplane Crashes
12.2.0 As has been repeatedly stated in this book (with irritating per- sistence?), newspapers and other communication media offer timely and topical themes that can be exploited for classroom activities. Here’s one that can be used for dispelling cultural stereotypes.
12.2.1 A lead front-page story in the Seattle Times (March 19, 1998, page A1), the largest newspaper in the state of Washington, featured a news analysis about Korean Air Flight 801, which crashed on August 6, 1997, killing 228 passengers. A part of the analysis is reproduced below:
Do culture factors cause air crashes? Flight safety may be hurt
by deference to authority
By Don Phillips
The Washington Post
The crew of Korean Air Flight 801 grew nervous as the Boeing 747 approached Agana, Guam, on a rainy night in August. Something didn’t feel right.
The plane, being flown by auto pilot, was descending steeply. The crew talked about the altitude, and someone said several times that the airport “is not in sight.” But investigative sources said nei- ther the co-pilot nor the flight engineer spoke out boldly, as trained, to alert the captain or even to urge breaking off the landing.
Alarms suddenly sounded in the cockpit. After an excruciating pause of several seconds, the captain finally cut off the auto pilot and prepared to pull up. At almost that moment, the crew of another plane perhaps 50 miles away saw the clouds ahead glow bright red.
The red glow was the Korean Air jet slamming into the top of Nimitz Hill, killing 228 of the 254 people on board. The moments of hesitation may have made the difference, because the jumbo jet would have cleared the hill if it had been just a few feet higher.
The question haunting investigators is why the co-pilot and flight engineer failed to challenge the captain. Specifically, some in- vestigators are wondering whether cultural factors—in this case, a traditional Korean deference to command authority—may have played a role in the crash.
Other experts counter that cultural factors play only a minor role in air safety, and some fear that even raising the issue may smack