teresa green,
If I sounded as though I didn't understand the cultural mores that exist in Asia then I apologise. I am very well aware of both the command structure and the overarching concept of "face".
However, they have no place in modern aviation and if Asian airlines cannot deal with it then they have no place in Australian airspace. Harsh? Yes, but both concepts make aviation more hazardous than it needs to be. The consequences can be fatal as this crash demonstrated.
Boeing and Airbus have invested massive sums over the years trying to make their products safer and that has included the human factors that are at work in their cockpits. They have realised that if the accident rate remains static then more people will die as the amount of air traffic around the world increases. If self-defeating attitudes are allowed to continue then all that investment is wasted.