To those bemoaning the `racism' in this thread.
Some cultures have high power distance - i.e. you do not question those in charge.
Others have low power distance - you can question those in charge.
It's a fact of life - not racism.
Read the long history of how Korean cultural norms contributed indirectly to the Guam crash and many other accidents - among a host of other factors.
It's a well established scientific principle in aviation human factors - not racism at all.
From Malcolm Gladwell - certainly not a conservative, or a racist for that matter:
I was a mere Navigator, but I did spend a year on a Korean Air Force base (NOT a USAF base in Korea, a ROKAF base) working daily with my Korean counterparts.
This 'power distance' difference between the USAF and ROKAF was huge.
Just to give you one example, years ago I was a bombing range controller back when the USAF had range control towers.
I was a junior Captain navigator. One day a two star general showed up in a flight of F-4s. He fouled his first low angle bomb pass for a low pullout, but I just warned him, since I was a bit intimated. He fouled his second LAB pass so I called the foul.
He then did a low angle strafe and fouled again. I ordered him to hold high and dry, as we had a 'two strikes and you're out' rule.
As that flight left I called my Squadron Commander and told him that I had fouled a General Officer off the range. The CC said "good job".
I never heard another word about it.
Fast forward a few years and some USAF technicians are working on camera equipment on a controlled ROKAF range. A ROKAF general officer shows up in an F-4 30 minutes early and wants to strafe.
The ROKAF range control told the USAF guys who are very near the strafe targets to "take cover" and the ROKAF general rolled in for his strafing runs.
That was the most extreme example I saw, but it was clear to me that in matters large or small the ROKAF officers were extremely reluctant to pass any sort of bad news to the boss, and would never, ever, directly contradict a senior officer. They told me that it was very important to them that their boss never lose face, and that they knew that as an American I couldn't really understand the whole concept of 'face' as it was practiced in their service.