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UPDATED-Former Korean Air exec pleads not guilty in nut rage case


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class="title" id="page-title" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 48px; color: rgb(63, 63, 64); text-shadow: white 1px 1px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"First class macadamia nut case prompts Korean Air exec to step down

SEOUL (Reuters) - A Korean Air Lines Co executive, whose dismay over the way she was served macadamia nuts led to a plane returning to its gate to expel the cabin crew chief, has stepped down as head of in-flight service, the airline said on Tuesday.
Korean Air apologized for Friday's incident at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in which Heather Cho, a vice president of the airline, took issue with a crew member for substandard service.
However, Cho, the 40-year-old daughter of the airline's chairman, Cho Yang-ho, will remain a vice president with the South Korean flag carrier, the airline said late on Tuesday.
The incident aboard an Airbus A380 jumbo jet that had been pushed back from its gate bound for Incheon, near Seoul, provoked outrage in South Korea when it was reported on Monday.
"I am sorry to our customers and the Korean people that I unintentionally caused social uproar and I ask forgiveness from anyone who has been hurt by me," a company official, speaking to Reuters by telephone, quoted Heather Cho as saying late on Tuesday.
South Korea Korean Air Nuts

"I take responsibility for the incident," the official quoted her as saying.
The airline said late on Monday that although Cho was responsible for supervising in-flight service, it was "excessive" that the plane was returned to the gate to expel a crew member in a non-emergency situation.
Cho was seated in first-class when she took issue with a flight attendant who handed her macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a dish, according to an industry official briefed on the matter, who declined to be identified.
Cho summoned the cabin crew chief to ask whether the flight attendant was following the in-flight service manual, and the crew chief could not answer promptly, the airline said.
Cho "took issue with the cabin crew chief's qualifications," and the plane was returned by the pilot to its gate to expel the crew chief, the airline said.
The flight arrived in Incheon 11 minutes behind schedule.
South Korea's transport ministry said on Monday it was investigating the incident.
Heather Cho is the oldest of Cho Yang-ho's three children, who are all executives with the airline.
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class="title" id="page-title" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 40px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Korean Air executive apologizes after nuts incident sparks national outrageSEOUL - The former Korean Air Lines executive who delayed a flight because she was unhappy with the way she was served macadamia nuts apologized on Friday over the incident, which fueled outrage and ridicule in South Korea.
Heather Cho, the daughter of the airline's chairman and head of in-flight service before she stepped down from the post this week, also said she would apologize to the cabin crew chief, who had been ordered to disembark, delaying the flight.
"I will apologize sincerely... in person," Cho said in response to a question by a reporter as she arrived at a transportation ministry office where she was expected to answer questions about last Friday's incident at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Dressed in black, Cho, 40, emerged from a black Hyundai sedan at a building near Gimpo International Airport. She stood before cameras but looked towards the ground as snow fell, her voice barely audible.
"I sincerely apologize for causing trouble for everyone. I'm sorry," she said.
"I will truthfully answer questions," said Cho, who is also under a separate investigation by local prosecutors following a complaint filed by a civic group that accused her of breaking multiple laws.
The incident was first reported on Monday, and public outrage grew after Korean Air issued what many in the country took to be a half-hearted apology that rationalized her conduct in the face of inadequate performance by the cabin crew chief.
The event unfolding in the cabin led to confusion at JFK as flight crew and officials on the ground discussed returning the plane to the gate to drop off the crew chief, and whether they needed to replace him.
Earlier on Friday, the airline's chairman, Cho Yang-ho, said his daughter was being removed from all posts at affiliate companies. She had already quit her position as vice president.
"I apologize to the people of this country as chairman of Korean Air and as a father for the trouble caused by my daughter's foolish conduct," said Cho, who bowed deeply in front of media crowded in the lobby of the airline's headquarters.
His daughter, who was seated in first class on the flight, was displeased with being served macadamia nuts in a bag and not a dish. The pilot brought the plane back to its gate for the cabin crew chief to be expelled. The Airbus A380 arrived at Incheon, near Seoul, 11 minutes behind schedule.
The Transport Ministry said it was reviewing whether Heather Cho violated aviation laws. She could face prosecution and a fine if found to have committed wrongdoing, an official said.
Investigators searched the offices of Korean Air on Thursday.
"I am sorry I did not educate her well," her father said.
The incident has stoked both mirth and anger in South Korea, whose economy is dominated by powerful family-run conglomerates known as chaebol. Local sales of macadamia nuts reportedly surged in the days following news of the incident. REUTERSSource
itemprop="headline" id="story-heading" class="story-heading" style="font-size: 2.125rem; line-height: 2.375rem; font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-style: italic; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Korean Air’s Chairman Removes Daughter From Executive Posts After Nut DustupSEOUL, South Korea — It looked as if things could not get worse for the South Korean airline executive mocked around the world this week for throwing a tantrum over a bag of nuts.
Then her father, the chairman of the airline, stripped his 40-year-old daughter, Cho Hyun-ah, of the titles she still had in the family-run conglomerate. He apologized on live television Friday for her “foolish" behavior, when she forced her plane back to the gate and then kicked off the head steward after being served macadamia nuts in their bag, rather than on a plate.
“I failed to raise her properly,” said the chairman, Cho Yang-ho, who bowed deeply and asked to take the blame, showing contrition in the traditional South Korean way when one’s child misbehaves.
As if that was not enough, the head steward on the flight spoke up after days of silence, telling Korea’s KBS-TV on Friday that Mr. Cho’s daughter had forced him to kneel down and apologize on the plane as punishment for the way one of his stewards served the nuts to passenger in first class. She later kicked the steward off the flight.
“You can’t imagine the humiliation I felt unless you experienced it yourself,” the steward, Park Chang-jin, said, adding that Ms. Cho called him names, hit him several times with a folder of documents and hurled it at the steward.
Ms. Cho later denied hitting Mr. Park or forcing him to kneel, making her statement as she emerged from questioning by government investigators looking into whether her actions violated aviation law. But if Mr. Park’s story bears out, it is likely to stoke already seething anger at the country’s family owned conglomerates — or chaebol — whose leaders have a reputation for imperious behavior and treating their employees like feudal subjects.
Forcing people to kneel in apology, a once common punishment, has, after all, fallen out of fashion in South Korea.
About the only good news, at least for business, came from macadamia nut purveyors who told local media that sales were surging. Some seemed to be having fun at Ms. Cho’s expense, with one telling customers online that the nuts would be delivered “in an unopened package.”
Anger at the nation’s chaebol has risen in recent years as many people blame widening economic inequality in South Korea on the conglomerates’ rapid expansion. The latest accusations of abuse by Ms. Cho have led already to a new chorus of critical editorials.
“In this case, we see not only a violation of an aviation law but also the imperial abuse of an owner family” the mass-circulation daily JoongAng Ilbo said in an editorial. Another editorial, in the daily Kyunghyang Shinmun, urged prosecutors to use Ms. Cho’s case as a warning to chaebol families that “act as if they were above the law.”
The newspaper also referred to other cases of what it called “depraved conduct” by chaebol families, including one in which a member of the family that controls SK Group, a telecommunications and petrochemicals conglomerate, received a suspended prison term for beating a former union activist with an aluminum bat.
In his statements to KBS, the head steward said that he had not felt able to stand up to Ms. Cho because she was “a daughter of the owner” of his company. KBS also quoted Mr. Park as claiming that Korean Air officials later tried to hush the scandal by asking him to tell investigators that he left the plane of his own will.
Korean Air had earlier accused Mr. Park of “ignoring regulations and procedures” of in-flight services and of trying to defend his crew’s mistake with “excuses and lies.” But the airline also admitted that Ms. Cho’s decision to remove him from the flight was “excessive.”
On Tuesday, after the incident on the flight bound for Incheon, South Korea, from New York’s Kennedy Airport had become public, Ms. Cho resigned as head of the airline’s in-flight services. She retained her title as vice president until Friday, however. At that point, her father said he would deprive Ms. Cho, his eldest child, of that job and her other executive posts at his sprawling conglomerate, Hanjin Group, which owns hotel, shipping and logistics businesses as well as Korean Air.
South Korean aviation law bars passengers from acts that could endanger a plane’s safety, such as shouting, using threatening language or otherwise causing a disturbance. Local media has reported that Ms. Cho “raised hell” during the Dec. 5 incident, screaming at crew members. Prosecutors are also investigating whether Korean Air tried to cover up the episode and raided the airline’s offices on Thursday in connection with the investigation.
There have been calls online to boycott the airline, and a parody video of a Korean Air commercial online had more than a half million views, and counting. The commercial called the airline “Peanut Air.”
On Friday, Ms. Cho seemed chastened by the public embarrassment. As she arrived for questioning at the offices of South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, she spoke in a barely audible whisper with her head bowed as a scrum of journalists snapped photos and thrust microphones in her face. She then said she would apologize in person to the crew members she was accused of abusing.
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I saw that this morning.  She looked like she was about 5.  -___-    Wonder if she was taught to be respectful--of not only her seniors--but everyone.  If the person that gave her the nuts did something 'wrong'--then she should have spoken to him quietly. 

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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1418489858326_2046" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; line-height: 42px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Korean Air chief steward in nut row says insulted, forced to kneelSEOUL (Reuters) - The head of cabin crew who was kicked off a Korean Air Lines <003490.KS> flight after a company executive raged over the way she was served macadamia nuts said he was insulted and forced to kneel down to apologize to the executive.

In a case that sparked public outrage and ridicule over her treatment of flight crew, Heather Cho, the daughter of the airline's chairman and head of in-flight service, reprimanded the cabin crew chief and one of his flight attendants who brought nuts to her in a bag, not a dish.
"In a situation where she said "Make contacts right now to stop the plane. I won't let the plane go", I dared not object to her, the owner's daughter," Park Chang-jin, the chief steward, told state-run TV network KBS late on Friday, ending days of silence.
The pilot brought the plane back to its gate at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for the cabin crew chief to be expelled. The flight arrived in Incheon, near Seoul, 11 minutes late.
Cho is the eldest daughter of the company chairman Cho Yang-ho. Two siblings are also executives at the airline.
Park said that Cho swore at him, jabbed the back of his hand with a file case several times, and pointed her finger at him while he kneeled.
The incident that was first reported on Monday has stoked both mirth and anger in South Korea, whose economy is dominated by powerful family-run conglomerates known as chaebol.
Cho has been stripped of all titles at the airline and its affiliates, and faces investigation by the government and prosecutors to determine whether she breached aviation laws.
Cho bowed and offered a public apology before being questioned by the transport ministry in Seoul on Friday. Speaking to reporters hours after being questioned, Cho declined to respond to the cabin crew chief's account of the incident.
"I have no idea... I have never heard of it," Cho told reporters, slightly shaking her head.
The chief steward said that, after the incident was first reported, he was visited several times at home by the airline's officials, who tried to persuade him to lie to authorities by saying that Cho had not sworn and that he had left the plane voluntarily.
Korean Air Lines declined to comment.
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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1418579667235_2050" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Korean Air CEO's daughter apologizes to steward over 'nut rage'Part-HKG-Hkg10127939-1-1-0.jpg

The daughter of Korean Air's CEO visited the home of a cabin crew chief Sunday to apologise for kicking him off a plane over the way a snack was served, amid claims she made him kneel and ask forgiveness.

Cho Hyun-Ah, formerly a top executive at Korean Air, resigned Tuesday from all her posts at the family-run flag carrier in the face of an intense public backlash and investigations by state authorities.

The 40-year-old forced a New York-Seoul flight to return to the terminal and eject the cabin crew chief on December 5 after she took exception to the arrival of some macadamia nuts she had not asked for, and to the fact they were served in a packet rather than a bowl.

Cho, sitting in first class, forced cabin manager Park Chang-Jin and a female attendant to kneel in front of her, calling Park names, pushing him into the cockpit door and jabbing him with a service manual, according to his account of the incident.

Cho visited the homes of both staff members on Sunday morning to offer a personal apology. But neither was home so she left notes at their doors saying sorry, a company spokeswoman told AFP.

Cho has denied she forced the pair to kneel. "I've never heard such thing. I don't know anything about it," she said when reporters asked her to confirm claims by Park in an interview with Seoul's KBS television.

But another passenger in first class confirmed most of Park's account and said she saw the two attendants on their knees.

"I felt so sorry for the flight attendants, who looked totally terrified of her," the passenger told KBS after meeting Seoul prosecutors Saturday to give testimony over the incident.

"Cho's voice was so loud that even people in the economy class turned to look," the passenger said, describing the atmosphere during the 14-hour flight as "very menacing and distressing."

Park said in his interview with KBS that the incident had been deeply humiliating.

"You can't imagine the humiliation I felt unless you experience it yourself," he said.

"She said, 'Make contact (with air traffic control) right now to stop the plane. I'm not going to let this plane go'. How could I disobey the daughter of the owner in a situation like that?"

Park has also claimed that Korean Air officials had for the past week pressed him to take the blame for the incident. The airline declined to comment on the allegation.

Cho's behaviour sparked fierce criticism in South Korea, where she has been accused of being petty and arrogant. The transport ministry and Seoul prosecutors have launched investigations into whether she breached aviation safety laws and caused disruption to business.

Korean Air CEO Cho Yang-Ho gave a televised press conference Friday to apologise for his daughter's "foolish act".

"I failed to raise the child properly. It's my fault," he said.

The incident, branded "nutgate" on social media, renewed resentment at the elite families who run the South's powerful business conglomerates known as chaebol.

The founding families of the business giants are credited with leading the country's growth for decades. But they have often made headlines with incidents in which they were accused of abusing power.

In 2007 the chairman of the chemical giant Hanwha group was convicted for hiring thugs and assaulting with metal pipes several men who had beaten his young son in a drunken brawl. He was given a suspended prison term.

A member of the founding family of SK Group received a suspended jail term for beating in 2010 a former labour union activist with a baseball bat and throwing him the equivalent of $18,000 as compensation for the attack.

"The (airline) incident laid bare again the dark side of our corporate culture, in which no one can protest against wrong behaviour by members of owner families," the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial on Saturday.

"These owners need to...educate their offspring properly and curb their sense of entitlement."

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I hope they can prosecute her. This is ridiculous. It's not her tour bus. She assaulted people because she believes that she is better than them and she messed with the plane's route which is dangerous outside emergencies.

I'm glad this is bringing attention to the chaebol of Korea. It's like they're royalty and they're starting to believe that they're far greater than other citizens.

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South Korea investigate Korean Air over Heather Cho outburst of nut service; company faces $2m fine
The daughter of a Korean Air executive who delayed a flight because she was unhappy about how she was served nuts will be reported to prosecutors and the airline could face a fine of up to $US2 million, South Korea's transport ministry says.
A ministry official said its investigation had confirmed Heather Cho engaged in abusive behaviour towards flight attendants in the December 5 incident at John F Kennedy airport in New York and may have broken aviation law.
Ms Cho may face legal charges if prosecutors pursue the case.
She is the daughter of the airline's chairman and was previously head of its in-flight services.
Ms Cho apologised over the incident, which fuelled outrage and ridicule in South Korea, and resigned her posts last week.
"As it has been confirmed that [Heather] Cho raised her voice and used abusive language as testified by some flight crew members and passengers, we will report her to the prosecution for potential violation of aviation safety law," the transport ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said Korean Air also violated aviation law and it is reviewing punitive measures for the airline, which could include flight suspensions and a fine of up to $2 million, the statement said.
Korean Air did not immediately comment on the ministry's comments.
The plane pushed away from the airport departure gate as the incident was taking place on board.
The pilot then brought the plane back to the gate to expel the cabin crew chief, after Ms Cho complained about being served macadamia nuts by a flight attendant in a bag and not on a dish.
Public outrage grew after Korean Air issued what many in the country took to be a half-hearted apology for what it termed an inadequate performance by the cabin crew chief, appearing to rationalise Ms Cho's conduct.
The crew chief said in a local television interview that Ms Cho swore at him and jabbed his hand with a document folder, pointing her finger at him while he kneeled to apologise to her.
The ministry said it was not able to confirm whether she physically assaulted any of the crew members.
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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1418750619874_665" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Korean Air to be sanctioned for nut rage cover-up
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's transport ministry said Korean Air Lines Co. will face sanctions for pressuring employees to lie during a government probe into the nut rage fiasco that highlighted the tyrannical behavior of a top Korean business family.

The ministry said Tuesday it will also evaluate if the airline's corporate culture poses safety risks after its chairman's daughter Cho Hyun-ah overruled the captain of a flight to force the plane back to the gate in the incident early this month.

Cho, who was head of cabin service at Korean Air, ordered a senior flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight after she was served macadamia nuts in a bag, instead of on a plate, in what she thought was a breach of service protocol in first class.

Transport ministry director Lee Gwang-hee said Korean Air could face 21 days of flight suspensions or a $1.3 million fine for violating aviation law. The punishment will be determined by a separate committee that could decide to increase or lessen it.

Cho family members have a direct 10 percent stake in Korean Air, which is part of the family's Hanjin conglomerate.

Park Chang-jin, the crew member who had to disembark from the plane, told South Korea's KBS television network on Friday that Cho had shamed and insulted crew members. A first-class passenger told Yonhap News Agency that Cho yelled at flight attendants who kneeled before her, pushed one flight attendant's shoulder and threw an object at the cabin wall.

The incident now dubbed "nut rage" hogged headlines around the world and enraged the South Korean public, leading to Cho's removal from all executive roles at the airline.

The 40-year-old and her father apologized last week, but a new furor has erupted over Korean Air's attempt to foil government investigators and local media reports that exposed how Korean Air employees were treated like servants of the Cho family.

"If the incident itself were not beastly enough, Korean Air's response has been abominable," Korea Herald said in an editorial. "In attempts that are akin to feudal servants trying to protect their lord's daughter, Korean Air staff rallied to the rescue of Korean Air CEO Cho Yang-ho's daughter."

Park, the crew member, was visited by Korean Air Lines officials who pressured him to give a sanitized version of events to investigators.

The airline will be punished because Cho and Park lied during the probe and because the captain was negligent in his duties, according to the ministry.

However, the captain won't face any sanction as he was powerless to refuse a member of the family that controls the airline, said Lee, the transport official.

The ministry's statement indicated other airline employees also faced pressure to lie to the investigators. It did not identify them.

Its investigation found Cho used abusive language to flight attendants but could not ascertain if she used violence. It will file a complaint against Cho with prosecutors later in the day.

Prosecutors earlier launched a separate investigation into the Korean Air case after receiving a complaint from a civic group. Prosecutors summoned Cho to be questioned on Wednesday, according to Yonhap.

The incident also highlighted the risks of investing in family-controlled companies where the primary goal is to further the interests of the family, not that of the shareholders or employees. Shares of Korean Air closed 0.3 percent lower after dropping nearly 6 percent in Seoul after the government announced its plan to sanction the airline.

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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1419396783550_557" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"SKorean prosecutors to arrest 'nut rage' official

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean prosecutors are seeking to arrest the former executive at Korean Air Lines Co. who forced a flight to return over a bag of macadamia nuts and a current executive for attempts to cover up the "nut rage" case.

Seoul Western Prosecutors' Office said Wednesday that Cho Hyun-ah faces charges including inflight violence and changing a flight route. The current airline executive, a 57-year-old man surnamed Yeo, faces charges of pressuring airline employees to cover up the incident, according to an official at the prosecutors' office who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about the matter.

Cho, the daughter of the Korean Air chairman, earlier this month resigned as vice president at the airline and all roles from the airline's affiliates as public outrage mounted over her behavior. She forced a Dec. 5 plane bound for South Korea from the United States to return to a gate and kicked off a flight attendant because the nuts were served in a bag, not on a plate.

Prosecutors launched a probe over the incident after a civic group filed a complaint against Cho. Last week, the transport ministry also reported Cho to prosecutors and said it will sanction Korean Air Lines for pressuring employees to lie during a government probe.

Chang Man-yong, a transport ministry official, said the ministry had asked prosecutors to investigate a transport ministry official suspected of leaking secrets about the ministry's probe into Yeo, the 57-year-old Korean Air executive. The government official, surnamed Kim, worked at Korean Air for 15 years before getting a job at the transport ministry.

When as part of the ministry probe Kim questioned the crew member who had to leave the plane, Yeo, the executive facing the charge of trying to cover up the incident, sat next to the crew member, Chang said. South Korean media reported that prosecutors raided Kim's house and office, but the prosecutors' office declined to confirm the report.

Cho, 40, and her father apologized earlier this month, but a new furor has erupted over Korean Air's attempt to foil government investigators. The public was also enraged because the transport ministry let a Korean Air executive to sit in during the questioning of the crew member and because a majority of the ministry investigators formerly worked at Korean Air, South Korea's largest air carrier.

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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1419961198938_1391" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Arrest warrant for ex-Korean Air exec in nut rageSEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court on Tuesday approved the arrest of a former Korean Air Lines Co. executive who delayed a flight over a bag of macadamia nuts.

Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of the airline's chairman, has faced mounting public anger because she forced the flight to return to its gate in New York to remove a senior flight attendant. She was angry that the nuts were served in a bag, not on a plate, in an incident that has been dubbed "nut rage."

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.

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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 Dec. 5 flight 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.

Cho and her two siblings quickly became executives at the airline and its affiliates. The family's direct stake in Korean Air is just 10 percent but cross-shareholdings among Hanjin companies give it effective control.

South Korea's transport ministry has also faced criticism because ministry investigators probing the incident were said to be too cozy with company executives who tried to protect Cho. Most of the ministry's investigators formerly worked at the airline, South Korea's largest, raising questions about their fairness.

Earlier this week, the ministry said it decided to punish four of its officials for misconduct during the investigation. One official was arrested last week for leaking information about the probe to Yeo, the Korean Air executive, in several telephone conversations and text messages.

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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420657914480_1168" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Korean Air chairman's daughter charged over nut case outburstSEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors charged the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines on Wednesday for delaying a flight following an outburst over the way she was served nuts, in a case that stirred public outrage and ridicule.

Heather Cho, a former executive of the airline and head of in-flight service before she resigned, had demanded the chief steward be removed from the flight at John F. Kennedy airport in New York after another flight attendant in first class served her macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a dish.

The early December incident, which media has dubbed the "nut rage" case, has aggravated public resentment of South Korea's powerful family-run conglomerates, called chaebol, which are seen as dominating the economy and contributing to a widening wealth gap.

Prosecutors said Cho, who has been held in custody by a court since Dec. 30, was facing charges of violating aviation security law and obstructing a government investigation.

The Airbus A380 on which Cho was traveling had pushed back from its gate but returned for the chief attendant to disembark. It arrived in South Korea 11 minutes late.

Deputy chief prosecutor Kim Chang-hee told reporters Cho had disrupted the flight and "threatened the plane's safety".

The Transport Ministry had concluded that Cho abused flight attendants and that airline officials may have tried to cover up the incident.

Another airline official was detained over allegations that he abetted perjury and obtained information on the ministry's investigation to update Cho.

Public outrage grew when Korean Air initially issued what many members of the public took to be a half-hearted apology that instead appeared to rationalize Cho's conduct in the face of what it said was inadequate performance by the cabin crew.

"The unprecedented case of the plane's return undermined Korean Air's credibility and also damaged national dignity," the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office said in a statement.

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Korean Air Lines Heiress Cho Hyun-ah Charged After 'Nut Rage,' Faces 15 Years In Jail

SouthKorea-HeatherCho

The former Korean Air Lines vice president, who in December had an outburst because of the way she was given macadamia nuts on a flight was charged in violating aviation safety regulations Wednesday. Cho Hyun-ah, the 40-year-old daughter of the Korean Air Lines chairman and former a vice president of her father's company, kicked a flight crew member off a flight after she was served the nuts in a bag instead of a dish on Dec. 5. The outburst, and her orders to return the plane to the gate at New York’s JFK Airport, resulted in the flight arriving to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport 11 minutes late.
Following the incident, the media and Internet have referred to it as the “nut rage.” Other critics have said her behavior was the result of too much power.
Prosecutor Kim Chang-hee in South Korea said that the former Korean Air Lines executive’s actions was “threatening the safety of the flight and causing confusion in law and order,” according to the AP. She is currently detained and has been since Dec. 30.
The investigation has gone further to include other Korean Air Lines executives who may have become involved by tampering with evidence, according to the Washington Post. One executive, known as Yeo, allegedly ordered one report to be deleted.  
Forcing a flight to change course can lead to a prison sentence of at most 10 years. That along with her other charges, including violence against flight crew, hindering a government investigation and forcing the purser off of the plane, can bring her up to 15 years in jail, the AP reported.
Hyun-ah resigned from her positions at the airline and she publicly apologized, along with her father, a week after the incident. She also said she would find the crew member she attacked and offer a “sincere apology.” 
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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1421715601407_1215" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Former Korean Air exec pleads not guilty in nut rage caseSEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The former Korean Air executive famous for an inflight tantrum over macadamia nuts pleaded not guilty Monday to violating aviation safety law and hindering a government investigation.

Lawyers for Cho Hyun-ah did not dispute the major elements of the prosecutor's account of events on Dec. 5 when Cho forced a Korean Air jet to return to the gate. Instead, they are focusing on a technical rebuttal.

Cho spent most of the first day of her trial Monday with her head lowered and hair covering her face. She declined to make any comments when invited to by a judge. Cho's attorney Yu Seung-nam said Cho is unable to mentally recover from her ordeal as she has been "beaten" by the media.

Cho, who is the daughter of Korean Air's chairman, achieved worldwide notoriety by kicking the chief flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight after another crew member offered her macadamia nuts in a bag, instead of on a dish. At the time, Cho was vice president of cabin service at the airline.

Her behavior, dubbed nut rage, caused an uproar in South Korea. The incident touched a nerve in a country where the economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates known as chaebol that often act above the law.

Cho has been in police custody since Dec. 30 and could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of all four charges against her.

Prosecutors accused her of forcing a flight to change its route, which was the most serious charge with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. The three other charges Cho faces are the use of violence against flight crew, hindering a government probe and forcing the flight's purser off the plane.

Yu, Cho's attorney, told a panel of three judges that the flight had moved only 17 meters from the gate at New York's John F. Kennedy airport before it returned, which did not amount to a forced change of an aviation route.

Cho admitted using violence against one flight attendant in first class by pushing her shoulder and throwing an object at her, but denied that she poked the hands of chief flight attendant Park Chang-jin with a book. Yu argued that those acts did not amount to threatening safety on the flight.

Prosecutor Kim Tae-hoon told the court that a flight attendant who witnessed Cho's tantrum was scared and nervous throughout the 14-hour journey.

"The moment her anger erupted, the vice president did not look like a human. She looked like an angry tiger," said Kim, reading from the flight attendant's statement.

Head Judge Oh Seong-woo said the judges want to ascertain whether Park will be able to continue working for Korean Air and as a result has summoned the airline's chairman Cho Yang-ho as a witness.

"Cho Hyun-ah will likely return to society, although we don't know when," said Oh in remarks that ended six hours of proceedings. "But for the case of Park Chang-jin ... whether he can work at Korean Air Lines is of keen interest to the judges."

Two other defendants in the nut rage case also pleaded not guilty. Korean Air executive Yeo Woon-jin was charged with interfering with the government investigation and a transport ministry official was charged with leaking secrets about the investigation.

Yeo, who has worked for Korean Air for more than 30 years, insisted that he did not know that Cho's actions could result in a criminal investigation even after prosecutors showed evidence that flight attendants reported full details of the incident to him.

"Our company's executives always make sure during their business trips that cabin service is properly done. I certainly thought (Cho) gave directions as a vice president overseeing cabin service," he said.

Prosecutors also highlighted an email showing that Yeo had asked a Korean Air customer service executive to help prevent legal action against Cho by giving special treatment to the first class passenger who sat near her.

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Guest turtle_tats

I want her to pay in jail time at least 10 years for what she had done. This is the only way for the country to save face from the shame in the eyes of the world and for the chaebol families to gain the respect of the public again. Gosh i personally hate her for mistreating the attendant and for her arrogance. Grrrrr...  L-) 

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^i doubt shed be sentenced for that long if found guilty. probably placed on parole after a year or two.

with the location where the events happened, would she be prosecuted under koreas judicial system or the us (state of new york)? or does it fall under international aviation law (if there is any)?

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