Dad, daughter apologize for Korean Air 'nut rage'
Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho, left, and his daughter Heather Cho apologize at the carrier’s headquarters and at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s office in Seoul, respectively, Friday, for Heather Cho’s recent improper in-flight behavior. She renounced all of her titles at the airline and its affiliated companies ahead of an investigation, which could result in a prison sentence. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul, Choi Won-suk
Chief flight attendant claims company forced him to make false statement
By Jung Min-ho
In Korean tradition, parents should take the blame for their children’s mistakes.
Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho followed this tradition Friday when the national flag carrier’s chief bowed his head and apologized for his eldest daughter, Heather Cho, 40, the central figure in the “nut rage” scandal.
“I am sorry and it is my fault as a father that I have not brought up my child properly,” Chairman Cho, 65, told reporters.
Hours later, his daughter, a former Korean Air vice president, renounced all her titles at the airline’s affiliated companies ahead of an investigation, which could result in a prison term over her alleged improper in-flight behavior.
Referring to the chief flight attendant whom she got removed from her flight at New York’s JFK International Airport last week, Heather Cho said, “I sincerely apologize to him. I will cooperate with the investigation.”
She resigned as president of KAL Hotel Network, Wangsan Leisure Development and Hanjin Travel, apologizing in front of reporters at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s office in Seoul.
The move came after prosecutors raided Korean Air headquarters in western Seoul on Thursday as part of their investigation into her behavior on the plane, including yelling at flight attendants and ordering the plane to return to the gate.
Speaking to KBS, the chief flight attendant, identified as Park Chang-jin, claimed the company told him to make a false statement after the incident.
“Five to six Korean Air officials visited me to force me to say that it happened because I did not understand the service and I left the plane of my own volition,” he said. “You have no idea how humiliating that is.”
He also claimed that she cursed at him and hit him with the company’s service guidebook. He said she forced him and female flight attendants to kneel on the floor.
Cho initially resigned only from her flight services-related posts when the incident made headlines around the world. But the furor seems unlikely to subside.
She could still face serious criminal penalties, following disclosures that she allegedly violated Korea’s Aviation Safety and Privacy Protection laws.
The aviation law bans any behavior that disturbs aircraft operations by either force or authority. Also, passengers are not allowed to yell or use violent language for safety reasons.
Those who violate the law can face up to 10 years in jail.
The incident happened on Dec. 5 on a flight bound for Incheon International Airport. Cho ordered the chief flight attendant to get off the plane because she was dissatisfied with a junior attendant who served her a packet of macadamia nuts without removing them from a bag and putting them on a plate. The aircraft had to return to the departure gate so that Park could deplane.
After the incident, Cho was also accused of ordering the phone messages of flight attendants on the plane to be inspected.
The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, the civic group that filed a complaint with the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office Wednesday, has already secured testimony from a Korean Air official that Cho threw a book at a flight attendant during her “nut rage.”
It is not just outsiders who are angry about her behavior _ opinion within the company is also harsh.
“I welcome the raid. I hope the investigation reveals further injustice in the company,” a member of Korean Air pilots’ labor union wrote on its website. “The rotten part has to be removed in order to let new flesh grow.”
Another member wrote: “The incident tarnished the image of my company, which has become an international laughing stock. And the former vice president is facing investigations, which could result in a prison term. But I wonder why I feel a load is off my mind.”
Meanwhile, some civic groups in the Korean community in New York, including the Korean American Association of Queens and Korean-American Parents Association of Greater New York, are campaigning to boycott Korean Air.
The prosecution has already imposed an overseas travel ban on Heather Cho and plans to secure the plane’s black box, as well as other records for flight KEO86.