Korean Air heiress freed from jail

Former Korean Air Executive Vice President Heather Cho makes her way through a swarm of reporters following a ruling at the Seoul High Court, Friday. She was released from prison after the court found her not guilty of changing the aircraft’s route in the infamous “nut rage” case. / Yonhap

Appeals court finds Heather Cho not guilty on key charge

By Lee Kyung-min

Former Korean Air Executive Vice President Heather Cho was released from prison Friday after an appeals court found her not guilty of changing an aircraft route in the infamous “nut rage” case.

She had been in prison since a district court sentenced her to one year behind bars in December, convicting her of risking flight safety by ordering pilots to change a plane’s route at JFK International Airport in New York.

The Seoul High Court, however, overturned the ruling and sentenced her to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years.

She changed clothes about 30 minutes after the ruling, made her way through a crowd of cameramen without saying anything and jumped into a car to return home.

Cho was cleared of charges of changing the flight route, but was found guilty of committing acts of violence against flight attendants.

Cho was indicted for ordering a plane bound for Incheon to return to the gate from a taxiing area at JFK on Dec. 5 and kicking a chief flight attendant off the plane because she was dissatisfied when a junior attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a plate.

The appeals court said her actions did not constitute changing the course of the aircraft.

“Aircraft ground movement does not qualify as an aircraft’s course, including the timeframe prior to aircraft departure and right after its landing,” the court said in its ruling.

“A course change made in such an area poses the least amount of danger, compared to that made after the aircraft departs.

“The lower court’s guilty verdict went beyond the reasonable degree of grounds for punishment, and incurred undue punishment on the defendant,” it said.

The court also said, even though the behavior demonstrated by Cho severely lacked public decency, it did not amount to jeopardizing flight safety.

“There is no doubt that Cho should be morally condemned for her actions, but the impact of her abusive behavior did not contribute to putting the crewmembers and passengers in harm’s way,” the court said.

The court also said that it took into account letters of apology and remorse submitted by Cho to the court, and the fact that she is the mother of 2-year-old twin boys.

“According to the letters of apology submitted by Cho during her detention, she seems to understand for the first time that her actions could cause emotional distress on many of her subordinates,” the court said.

“Cho, the mother of twin boys, has been detained for almost five months, and this court has no reason not to believe the sincerity of her apology.”

“Also taken into account was that she has to live with the social stigma for the rest of her life, and that she has no prior offences.”

Besides Cho, the appeals court delivered sentences on two others linked to the nut rage case ― a former Korean Air executive, identified only by his surname Yeo, and a transportation ministry official surnamed Kim.

Yeo received eight months in prison from a lower court for ordering employees to delete data related to what happened at the airport, but the appeals court suspended the sentence for two years.

“Yeo’s action resulted from his loyalty to Cho and the company he had worked for 32 years. He also attempted to look out for other crew members when questioned by company officials,” the court said.

Kim, who was given a suspended sixth-month jail term by a district court for leaking details of a government investigation into the nut rage case to Yeo, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

“The evidence submitted by the prosecution is not enough to prove the charges against him,” the court said.