Seoul court frees ‘nut rage’ heiress
Print Edition
THE former Korean Air executive jailed for disrupting a flight in a rage over macadamia nuts walked free yesterday when a South Korean appeals court overturned her conviction for violating aviation safety laws.
The High Court in Seoul ruled that Cho Hyun-Ah, who had been in jail since her arrest in December, was not guilty of the most serious charge of altering an aircraft’s route while in flight.
That overturned the verdict of a lower district court, which had jailed Cho for one year in February.
“The accused had no intention of hampering the safe operation of the plane,” High Court judge Kim Sang-Hwan said, handing down a reduced sentence of 10 months, suspended for two years.
Mobbed by reporters outside, Cho, 40 walking with her head bowed, was shielded by minders, who whisked her away to a waiting black sedan.
One of her lawyers offered Cho’s apologies to “all those who have been hurt by this incident.”
The eldest daughter of the airline’s chairman, Cho was a Korean Air (KAL) vice president in charge of in-flight service at the time of her December 5 “nut rage” meltdown on a Seoul-bound KAL flight that had just left the gate in New York.
As the plane was taxiing to the runway, Cho, in first class, became enraged when a flight attendant served her nuts in a bag, rather than on a plate.
She lambasted the chief steward over the behavior of his cabin crew and then ordered the plane back to the gate so he could be ejected.
In her original trial, the district court determined that an aircraft was “in flight” from the moment it began to move, and therefore Cho had violated aviation safety laws by illegally changing the plane’s route.
But the High Court overturned that decision, ruling that the return to the gate “did not constitute a change” of flight path.
Many South Koreans saw Cho’s behavior as emblematic of a generation of spoilt and arrogant offspring of owners of the family-run conglomerates, or “chaebols,” that dominate the national economy.
In deciding on a sentence, Judge Kim said the court had taken into account that Cho had 2-year-old twins at home and no past criminal record.
“She knows she has to live the rest of her life tainted by this incident,” he added.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
