In Outliers, Gladwell talks about how Korean Airlines reduced its crashes from the most in the world to one of the safest airlines in the world. He argues that pilots from countries where it is difficult to question superiors suffer more frequent crashes than pilots from countries where questioning superiors is the norm.
I bet the passengers on Flight 1549 who had read Outliers were glad that the pilots where American and not another nationality.
If you haven’t read Outliers, see my previous post on why everyone should read it.