So accepting that the published lists in the press are oversimplified (as are all such ranking lists), is there any way in which a prospective traveller, flying into an unfamiliar part of the world where the airlines well-known to them don't operate, can choose between more safe and less safe airlines?
There seems to be a tendency to go rather rapidly from pointing out the shortfalls in rankings of this kind, to suggesting that no sort of ranking has any value, or perhaps that airline safety is a dark mystery, only known to insiders.