A former vice-president of Korean Air, Heather Cho, has reportedly been jailed for a year for diverting an aircraft, a violation of aviation safety law, after throwing a fit over the way macadamia nuts were served in the first-class cabin.
The Korean Air nut rage incident, which caused public outrage in South Korea, has more to the story than Cho throwing a crew member off the plane and demanding the plane go back to the gate at New York’s JFK Airport, causing the flight to arrive 11 minutes behind schedule, according to CNN News.
Park Chang-jin, the chief steward who was kicked off the flight by Cho, reportedly stated that the former executive treated crew members like “feudal salves.” Kim Do Hee, the flight attendant who served the nuts, had reportedly knelt in front of Cho to apologize, but that wasn’t enough.
Kim reportedly testified that Cho scolded her about the service and later shoved and cursed her.
Cho also admitted to verbal and physical violence, throwing a service manual on the floor and pushing one of the female flight attendants with her finger, according to the publication Irish Times.
“I don’t know how to find forgiveness,” stated Cho in court last Thursday.
She added that she accepted “full responsibility” for the nut rage incident.
During Cho’s trial, prosecutors reportedly stated that there were attempts to cover up the incident. Yeo Woon-jin, who pressured Kim not to talk to investigators about Cho’s outrage, was reportedly found guilty of interfering with the investigation.
Judge Oh Sung-woo reportedly stated that the Korean Air nut rage incident was a representation of “human dignity” getting “trampled upon.”
Korean Air’s chairman Cho Yang-ho reportedly had little knowledge of how his daughter was treating employees.
“I just heard that she’s strict with her workers,” stated the chairman.
