If you were planning to fly in a developing country, the results of this new study might change those plans, for the risk of airplane crashes is 13 times more than that in US and other First World countries.

The more economically advanced countries in the Developing World have better overall safety records than the others, but even their death risk per flight is seven times as high as that in First World countries.

Prof Arnold Barnett at MIT's Sloan School of Management calculated that the chance of dying on a scheduled flight in a First World nation like the U.S., Japan, or Ireland was 1 in 14 million.

However, airlines of economically advancing countries in the Developing World such as Taiwan, India, and Brazil, the death risk per flight was 1 in 2 million. And in less economically advanced Developing-World countries, the death risk per flight was 1 in 800,000.

Barnett points out that the distinction he makes is "between safe and very safe, and not between safe and dangerous." He does note, "it is not uncommon for a month to pass without any fatal passenger-jet crashes anywhere in the world."

The research that indicates that, in terms of deference to authority and "individualism," the economically advancing Developing-World countries are on average far from those in the First World but almost identical to other Developing-World countries.

Barnett concedes that he should "not get too caught up in speculation," but notes that one possible explanation for why the economically-advancing countries did not fare better is that "their economic shift towards the First World has not been accompanied by a corresponding cultural shift."

The study appears in the current issue of Transportation Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. (ANI)