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A Korean Air executive who made a taxiing aircraft return to its gate because she was served nuts in a bag rather than a bowl denied violating aviation law as her trial began in Seoul.
Cho Hyun Ah, the daughter of the airline’s chairman, faces up to 15 years in prison for making the flight change its route, violence against crew members, forcing a crew member off the aircraft and obstructing a government investigation.
Heather Cho, as she is also known, was Korean Air’s vice-president and was in charge of customer service. She resigned after the “nut rage” incident.
She allegedly hit the crew member, who offered her macadamia nuts in a way not specified in the service manual, at the start of a flight from John F Kennedy airport in New York to Seoul on December 5.
After forcing the crew member to kneel in apology, she ordered the captain to return to the gate to eject him. The man says that he was ordered by senior airline officials to lie about the incident.
“The vice-president looked like an angry tiger,” said the prosecutor, quoting one of the crew.
Cho’s lawyer said she was deeply remorseful and the charges exaggerated the harm done, the Times reported.