A 14-year-old boy and his parents were slapped with a fine of 15 million won ($13,000) for a prank call the child made to a domestic airline, causing a major delay to an airplane’s scheduled departure, a court said Thursday.
The Seoul Southern District Court said the child, identified by his surname Cha, and his parents lost in a damages suit filed by the nation’s flagship airline, Korean Air.
“The child’s prank call interrupted the business of the plaintiff and also inflicted financial damage,” said presiding judge Lee Dong-wook in the ruling.
In February, Korean Air filed a suit against the family after one of its flights was forced to take off one hour later than scheduled because of Cha’s call that he had planted a bomb on the flight.
The airline company also filed a suit against two other prank callers, but the case was recently wrapped up before the court reached a verdict as both sides agreed with court-ordered arbitration.