By Kim Rahn
The prosecution’s investigation into the “nut rage” scandal may expand to an alleged influence pedaling alliance between the transportation authority and Korean Air.
The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) asked the Seoul Western Prosecutors’ Office, Friday, to investigate three officials at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) who were purportedly offered free upgrades during business trips on Korean Air flights early this year.
The allegation follows suspicions that a MOLIT official, surnamed Kim, who was a former Korean Air worker, gave the carrier details of the ministry’s probe of the scandal. The ministry has been criticized for its lackadaisical approach to the case, where Korean Air former Executive Vice President Heather Cho ordered flight KE086 bound for Incheon to return to the gate from the taxiing area at JFK International Airport on Dec. 5 and kicked a chief flight attendant off the plane. Cho did this as she was angry at the way a junior attendant served her macadamia nuts.
According to the civic group, three ministry officials had a business trip to an unidentified European country on a Korean Air flight. While their seats were economy-class initially, they were upgraded to business and first-class without additional charge.
If should have cost another 2 million won for each of them.
“It is said that almost everybody in the airline industry knows that MOLIT officials get free upgrades from Korean Air regularly,” Ahn Jin-geol, secretary general of the PSPD, said.
He claimed the officials should face bribery charges, and Korean Air officials offering the benefits, breach of trust charges.
“We can’t disclose the officials’ names to prevent a whistleblower’s identity from being revealed. But we believe the tips are reliable,” Ahn said.
Following the allegation, the ministry also launched its own inspection.
“We are checking who has received benefits and will take disciplinary action on those people if the allegations are true,” Shin Eun-cheol, an official from the ministry’s audit department, said.
He said the ministry asked Korean Air and Asiana Airlines not to offer free seat upgrades to MOLIT officials in July.
In a related probe, the Seoul Western District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim.
He allegedly leaked the ministry’s probe information to a Korean Air executive, surnamed Yeo, over the phone more than 30 times along with text messages. It is said that Kim, who worked for the carrier for 15 years, was close to Yeo.
“Kim even read the report to Yeo over the phone and deleted some text messages exchanged between them in an effort to destroy evidence,” a prosecutor said.
Yeo is also suspected of having ordered crewmembers of flight KE086 to remove email reports about the incident after the scandal emerged and to lie to investigators. Prosecutors are also seeking an arrest warrant for him.