SEOUL, South Korea — 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
SEOUL, South Korea — 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 Monday 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.”
