By Chung Hyun-chae
Airline companies will be fined triple the current amount for violating safety-related rules after being given improper orders by their executives.
In addition, people convicted of violating the Aviation Law will be barred from working as executives at airlines for five years, up from two years.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced these revisions to related regulations at a public hearing in Seoul, Friday.
The measures follow the “nut rage” incident in which then-Korean Air executive Heather Cho interfered with a flight because she was angered at how nuts had been served by a flight attendant.
“In order to improve risk prevention and control, we are proposing stronger punishment for those endangering safety, including managers of airline companies,” said a member of a special committee at the ministry.
A company currently has to pay 600 million won if an executives force a plane to take off despite engine problems and the aircraft then has to return to the airport of departure due to the problem. The new fine will be 1.8 billion won.
The ministry will also increase the fines for passengers who interfere with the work of pilots or flight attendants from the current 5 million won to 50 million won, with the possibility of a prison term of up to five years.
Aside from security-related issues, the ministry is also working on severing its “corrupt ties” with Korean Air, after a member of the ministry’s inspection team for the “nut rage” incident ― a former Korean Air worker ― leaked details of the investigation to the firm.
The ministry said this is because 88 percent of its aviation safety inspectors are former Korean Air employees. It plans to hire people from other domestic and foreign airlines from now on, so that the level will drop to less than 50 percent by 2019.
Cho was indicted for ordering a Korean Air plane bound for Incheon to return to the gate from a taxiing area at JFK International Airport in New York 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.