Korean Air faces sanctions for pressuring employees to lie during a government probe into the ‘nut rage’ incident.
Transport ministry director Lee Gwang-hee said Korean Air could face up to 21 days of flight suspensions or a $1.3 million fine for violating aviation law, The Telegraph reported.
The punishment will be determined by a separate committee that could decide to increase or lessen it.
South Korea’s transport ministry 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 an aircraft 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 flight in New York 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.
Park Chang-jin, the crew member who had to disembark from the aircraft, later told South Korea’s KBS television network 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 enraged the South Korean public, leading to Cho’s removal from all executive roles at the airline.
The 40-year-old and her father apologised last week, but it emerged that crew member Park was visited by Korean Air officials who pressured him to give a sanitised 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 will avoid any sanction as he was powerless to refuse a member of the family that controls the airline, said Lee.
Its investigators found Cho used abusive language to flight attendants but could not ascertain if she used violence.