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Post by Admin on Dec 31, 2014 13:37:02 GMT
The former Korean Air executive involved in the infamous 'nut rage' incident earlier this month, has been arrested in order to prevent her from leaving South Korea. Cho Hyun-Ah, the daughter of the Korean Air's chairman, has faced mounting public anger following the incident, which saw her force a flight to return to its gate in New York over a bag of nuts. Cho, 40, had become outraged that the macadamia nuts had been served in a bag and not in a bowl and demanded the removal of a senior flight attendant. Prosecutors have yet to press criminal charges against Cho, but South Korean law allows authorities to arrest a suspect for up to six months over worries the person could flee or destroy evidence. Seoul Western District Court said such concerns were warranted. A separate arrest warrant for a current Korean Air executive, whose surname is Yeo, was also granted. Yeo is suspected of pressuring Korean Air employees to conceal the incident. The court said there were 'systematic attempts to cover up' Cho's actions 'since the beginning of the incident.' The Seoul Western Prosecutors' Office has said Cho would face several charges, including inflight violence and changing a flight route, which is prohibited under aviation law. Cho, 40, resigned earlier this month as vice president at Korean Air and from all her roles at the airline's affiliates. A passenger on the flight on December 5 told local media that Cho assaulted and threatened crew members. Park Chang-jin, the senior flight attendant who was kicked off, told the KBS television network that he was insulted and had to kneel before her because he didn't dare to challenge the chairman's daughter. Her behavior touched a nerve with South Koreans who are frustrated with family members who control mighty business groups known as chaebol that dominate Asia's fourth-largest economy. Her father, Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-Ho, has apologised for his daughter's "foolish act". Mr Cho also said his daughter would step down from all her posts in companies under the Cho family-owned Hanjin Group, which also owns Korean Air. The Hanjin Group is one of South Korea's top family conglomerates, called chaebol. Correspondents say the incident has started a debate in South Korea about whether the country's large family firms unduly favour the children of the owners.
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Post by Admin on Jan 20, 2015 13:23:49 GMT
The daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines on Monday denied conspiring with airline executives to force flight attendants to lie about her first class outburst over the way she was served nuts. Heather Cho had demanded the removal of the crew chief from a flight at John F. Kennedy airport in New York after another flight attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a dish. The plane, already taxiing to the runway, had to return to its gate. Cho, a former executive of the airline and head of in-flight service before she resigned, appeared in court in Seoul on Monday after her arrest on December 30. Defence lawyers denied Cho violated aviation security laws by changing the flight's route or conspired with airline executives to coerce crew members to lie about the incident to investigators. Cho, wearing a light green prison uniform, did not speak during the hearing. Her lawyers told the court that Cho felt sorry for her actions, but that they did not merit punishment by law. They also denied that she used violence toward the chief steward. The steward and prosecutors had said he was forced to kneel down and Cho poked his palm several times with a folder. 'As information that no one except investigators could know was disclosed to the press, the defendant, her husband and 19-month-old twin boys wound up in a condition where they cannot mentally recover,' defence lawyer Yoo Seung-nam said. Heather Cho is the oldest of Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho's three children. Her siblings are also executives with the airline.
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Post by Admin on Feb 3, 2015 13:39:24 GMT
A Korean Air cabin crew chief allegedly forced off a plane by airline heiress Cho Hyun-ah in a notorious “nut rage” incident testified at her trial that she treated flight crew like “feudal slaves”. Cho faces a maximum 10-year sentence if convicted of air safety violations. They stem from the incident in December when she allegedly forced crew chief to leave a New York-Seoul flight before it took off, compelling the taxiing plane to return to the gate so he could disembark. The 40-year-old, who was a KAL vice-president at the time, took exception to being served macadamia nuts for which she had not asked – and in a bag, not a bowl. The incident sparked public outrage in South Korea. Cho could also face another five years in jail on charges of coercing staff to give false testimony and interfering in the execution of their duty. Crew chief Park Chang-jin accused Cho of treating flight attendants like “feudal slaves” and urged her to reflect sincerely on her “irrational and senseless” conduct. “I think Cho did not show an ounce of conscience, treating powerless people like myself as feudal slaves and forcing us to sacrifice unilaterally,” he said. “Like a beast that found its prey gritting its teeth, she yelled and became violent, never listening to what I said.” Park has said Cho made him kneel and beg for forgiveness while jabbing him with a service manual. The KAL chief said no crew members would lose their jobs over the incident or subsequent investigations. But Park, who returned to work on Sunday, expressed concern about possible damage to his career, claiming he had been treated like an “expendable”. The incident was seen as emblematic of a generation of spoilt and arrogant offspring of owners of family-run conglomerates, or chaebols, that dominate the economy. The story made international headlines and was seen as a national embarrassment, with South Korean media commentators suggesting that Cho had shamed the country.
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Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2015 17:02:09 GMT
It started with a first-class aviation executive throwing a fit on a flight over her nuts. It ended Thursday with that former executive sentenced to jail for one year. Heather Cho was working for Korean Air on December 5 when, as a first-class passenger on an international flight, an attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag. Cho wanted them on a plate and demanded that the plane go back to the gate at New York's JFK airport so a crew member could be kicked off the flight. Cho had the chief steward removed from the flight after the plane had left the gate. The flight arrived 11 minutes behind schedule. A year in jail may seem just as extreme as freaking out over nuts. But the flight attendant testified that she was pressured by another Korean Air manager to keep quiet about Cho's behavior. Prosecutors said during her trial that there was a systematic attempt to cover up the incident. The judge blasted Cho for her conduct, saying that she had used the plane as if it were her personal car and that as a passenger, she could not override crew members and give orders during a flight. There is growing resentment over the perceived privileges and nepotism for the families that control the country's top companies. Cho resigned as vice president at the company a few days after the incident and publicly apologized, saying she accepted "full responsibility." On Thursday, she appeared in court wearing a green prison uniform. She gazed downward. Her hair hung in her face. "I don't know how to find forgiveness," she said. Details of Cho's behavior on the flight have emerged. Park and Kim Do Hee, the flight attendant who served the nuts, had knelt in front of Cho in apology. Kim testified that Cho berated them about the service, and later shoved and cursed her. When the flight arrived in Korea, the flight attendant said another airline manager, Yeo Woon-jin, pressured her not to talk to investigators about Cho's physically abusing her and Park.
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Post by Admin on May 22, 2015 14:16:21 GMT
Former Korean Air Lines executive Heather Cho walked free after nearly five months in prison on Friday after an appeals court suspended the sentence she was given for her outburst over the way she had been served macadamia nuts. Cho, the daughter of the airline's chairman, was sentenced in February to one year in prison over the Dec. 5 incident at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, where she forced a plane to return to its gate in order to expel the flight's crew chief. The "nut rage" case provoked mirth as well as outrage in South Korea, where many people are fed up with what they see as heavy-handed conduct by the rich and powerful. Her lawyer said after the ruling that Cho felt remorse for the suffering she caused among the crew members who were subjected to her outburst. Cho, 40, did not answer questions from reporters as she left the court surrounded by Korean Air employees and after she changed into personal clothes from her prison uniform. She was driven away in a black car. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment on whether they would appeal the ruling. The court upheld Cho's conviction, finding her guilty of breaking South Korea's aviation law, but reduced her sentence to 10 months, which it suspended. It noted her previous lack of a criminal record and that she is the mother of young twins. "The defendant would have had a chance to reflect sincerely on the mental anguish she caused in the victims during the five months she spent in the darkest place in society while in detention and away from family," Judge Kim Sang-hwan said. Cho's lawyer did not say if Cho would appeal her conviction. A lower court ruled in February that the airline's former vice president and head of in-flight service had violated the law by ordering the plane to return to its gate. Cho faces a civil suit filed in New York by a flight attendant involved in the incident for damage caused to her career, reputation and emotional health, seeking unspecified damages. Chief steward Park Chang-Jin had testified that Cho had made him kneel and beg for forgiveness while jabbing him with a service manual. The flight attendant who served the now infamous nuts has since filed a civil lawsuit, alleging Cho attacked, threatened and screamed obscenities and then pressured her to cover up the incident by lying to government regulators.
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