Heather Cho, the former Korean Airlines vice president - and daughter of the carrier's chairman - was sentenced to a year in jail Thursday for her now-infamous "Nut Rage" incident in December.
According to the Korea Herald, Seoul's Seobu District Court ruled that Cho "had violated a law banning passengers from pressuring crew members to deviate from the flight route." Dhe also "physically and verbally assaulted a female flight attendant as well as the cabin crew chief."
Cho ordered a Korean Airlines plane to go back to the gate at JFK International Airport in December in a dispute over how macadamia nuts were served. Court testimony two weeks ago also alleged that she verbally and physically abused two flight attendants.
According to the airline's manual, first class passengers are to be served the snack on a dish. Hers were distributed still in the package. Cho was apparently so enraged that she ordered the plane back to the gate at JFK to have a flight attendant removed from the aircraft.
Flight attendant Kim Ho Dee testified that she and the chief flight attendant not only dropped to their knees in front of Cho asking for forgiveness, but that Cho verbally abused her and also threw a tablet at her.
Her father, Korean Airlines chairman Cho Yang-ho, spoke to a blizzard of media outside the courtroom two weeks ago, saying: "I think it is my duty to respect the court's judgment. That's why I came here. I would like to make a sincere apology to everyone supporting Korean Airlines. I sincerely apologize to the people who treasure Korean Air. No matter what, mistreating the flight attendant is not correct. I scolded her for not being able to control her emotions."
Heather Cho wasn't the only one punished. Multiple media outlets were reporting that an airline employee who was accused of destroying evidence was sentenced to eight months in prison, and an official with South Korea's Transportation Ministry was given a suspended sentence for attempting to interfere with a witness.
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