By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
The children of the rich and powerful are known for their demanding behavior but the daughter of a Korean airline boss has caused outrage by having a flight attendant thrown off her plane for not offering her pre-flight nuts.
Cho Hyun-ah has landed herself in trouble after the South Korean transport ministry announced an investigation into the outbreak of air rage on a New York to Seoul flight on Friday, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Cho, daughter of Korean Air chief executive Cho Yang-ho and also a senior vice president with the airline, caused the taxi-ing airplane to return to the departure gate when she ordered the senior cabin crew member off the flight.
She is said to have screamed at the attendant for not asking if she would like a pre-flight snack of macadamia nuts and then for serving them in a paper bag instead of on a plate.
Cho, also known as Heather, reportedly insisted on seeing the company’s service manual to check policy on serving nuts in first-class before ordering the attendant off the plane as it prepared for take-off.
Flight KE088’s arrival at Incheon airport was delayed by 11 minutes due to the incident, Yonhap added.
On Monday, the transport ministry said it was investigating a potential breach of aviation safety regulations.
“We will see if [the incident] was in violation of the law. We must review related laws as this incident is unprecedented,” a ministry official said.
“Even if she is the vice-president of the airline, she was one of [many] passengers and should have been treated as such.”
A LinkedIn page under the name Heather Cho shows she joined the airline as managing vice president in 1999, her first job after leaving Cornell University in New York.
She is also the chief executive officer of the KAL Hotel Network, a hotel affiliate of Korean Air.
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