Newsmakers
Korean Air’s “nut rage” heiress released early
June 1st 2015
Former Korean Air senior executive, Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of the airline’s chairman, has been released from prison after an appeals court ruled she had not breached aviation security rules in an incident in the U.S. last December. Read More » Travelling in first class from New York to Seoul, Cho erupted into a rage when a flight attendant served her Macadamia nuts in a packet instead of a bowl as the airliner taxied away from the gate at JFK international airport.
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Cho achieved national and worldwide notoriety for her outburst and faced accusations that she was a rich, privileged and believed herself to be above the law because of the influence of her family.
Hearing an appeal against Cho’s conviction and sentencing to a year in goal in a lower court, the Seoul High Court said the heiress had not violated aviation security regulations by her action in New York. After she had been served the nuts, Cho ordered the Korean Air plane to abandon its take off and return to the airport gate so the flight attendant could be removed from the aircraft. She was also found not guilty of influencing a government investigation into the incident.
However, South Korea’s High Court found Cho guilty of using violence against cabin crew and sentenced her to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years. Cho was convicted in January and has been in goal for five months. Prosecutors had argued for a three-year prison term.
The appeal court’s senior judge said Cho should be given a chance to rebuild her life after she became a target for public anger against family members of South Korea’s leading businesses or Chaebols. Judge Kim Sang-hwan said Cho had shown genuine remorse but that “it appears she will have to live under heavy criticism and stigma from society" for her actions.
Cho is the latest member of a leading Chaebol family to have received a suspended sentence, reported the Financial Times. Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics and Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor, received suspended sentences and were later pardoned, the newspaper said.
