Top court acquits Korean Air heiress in "nut-rage" case
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Heather Cho
By Lee Kyung-min
The top court upheld a lower court ruling that acquitted former Korean Air Executive Vice President Heather Cho, Thursday, of the “nut rage” case three years ago that triggered nationwide outrage over the rich and powerful abusing their positions.
Cho is the eldest daughter of Chairman Cho Yang-ho of Korean Air, the country’s largest full-service carrier.
In the first 13-member full-panel ruling deliberated by the 13 Supreme Court justices including chief justice Kim Meong-su after he took the top post, the court said she did not violate aviation law by ordering the plane to change its air route, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
“The air route, the point of contention here, should be interpreted as referring to the aircraft’s course when it is flying, not when it is taxiing on the ground,” the court said.
“The lower court’s ruling was apt in making such a determination, and there was no misinterpretation of the law that requires a review.”
Cho was indicted in January 2015 for ordering a plane bound for Incheon to return to the gate from a taxiing area at JFK on Dec. 5, 2014. Mistakenly, the prosecution said Cho forced a flight that departed from JFK International Airport in New York bound for Incheon to change course.
She ordered the plane to return to remove the chief flight attendant because she considered it a failure of first-class cabin service for a junior attendant to serve macadamia nuts in a bag and not on a plate, as she considered it a hassle for passengers to open the plastic bag.
Cho also faced charges of committing acts of violence that disturbed flight safety, coercion, interfering with a business and interfering with the official duties of the flight crew by abusing her authority, all of which carry far less harsh sentences.
Cho had pleaded not guilty to the main charge, arguing the airport runway should not be considered part of the “air route.” She claimed she had ordered the chief flight attendant off the plane because he failed to memorize the service manual.
A lower court sentenced her to one year in prison for obstructing aviation safety by ordering a taxiing plane to return to the gate over in-flight service. The conviction followed the court’s ruling that it was questionable whether Cho really felt remorse about her actions, which the court deemed trampled on the integrity of humanity.
However, she was released in May 2015 after an appellate court sentenced her to a 10-month prison term suspended for two years.
The Seoul High Court acquitted her, saying the prosecution sought to interpret the definition of air route too restrictively to punish Cho.
The so-called nut-rage case drew fierce public uproar over long-held practices exhibited by Korea’s family-owned businesses, or chaebol, referred to as “gapjil,” in which the rich and powerful do not care about the repercussions of their actions because they think they can get away with anything simply by paying people off or firing them.
Children of chaebol families usually assume mid- to executive-level positions in their parents’ companies at a young age regardless of their qualifications, simply because they can.
This deeply embedded sense of entitlement _ a feeling of limitless power without any responsibilities _ has long ailed Korea, where young people without any such status ended up coining the term “Hell Joseon,” a sarcastic expression comparing the name of the old Korean kingdom, Joseon, with hell.