'Heather Cho obstructed investigation'

By Kim Rahn

Heather Cho

The prosecution has concluded that Heather Cho, former Korean Air executive, exercised influence during the transportation authority’s investigation into the “nut rage” incident.

Prosecutors indicted her on Wednesday on charges of violating the Aviation Safety Law and interfering with the authority’s official duties.

The indictment comes about a month she ordered a plane bound for Incheon to return to the gate at JFK International Airport in New York from a taxiing area on Dec. 5 and kicked a chief flight attendant off the plane because she was angry at the way a junior attendant served her macadamia nuts, in a bag not on a plate.

Cho was arrested on Dec. 30 on charges of forcing the change of an aircraft’s course; committing acts of violence that disturbed flight safety; coercion; and interfering with business.

The prosecution added an additional charge ― interference with official duty via authority ― because she allegedly played a key role in the carrier’s systematic attempt to cover up the incident during an inspection by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Dec. 8-12.

While the ministry was inspecting crewmembers of the flight, Cho allegedly received reports from another Korean Air executive, Yeo, about how the inspection was going and whether he succeeded in encouraging a witness to give investigators testimonies favorable to her.

“Even after she underwent the ministry’s inspection, she called Yeo and reprimanded him by saying that she did nothing wrong and it was the chief flight attendant’s faults. She and Yeo are joint principal offenders of interference of state authority’s official duty,” a prosecutor said.

Yeo was also indicted on charges of destroying evidence. He allegedly ordered crewmembers of the flight to lie to investigators and forced the chief flight attendant to write false reports about the incident.

“Before the scandal became public, Yeo deleted the chief attendant’s email report. Even when we were raiding the Korean Air headquarters, he ordered his juniors to delete remaining reports and remove a computer to destroy evidence,” he said.

Prosecutors also indicted a ministry official, Kim, on charges of giving detailed information about the authority’s probe to Yeo.

The prosecution will continue investigating the carrier’s alleged offering of free seat upgrades to ministry officials.