Korean Air Senior Vice President of Inflight Service Heather Cho has resigned after publicly apologising for behaving badly towards a crew member last week.

 

This follows an incident when Cho, 40, ordered Korean Air flight number KE086 bound for Incheon Airport to return to its departure gate at New York JFK after it had just pushed back to leave.

 

Cho objected to the actions of a flight attendant who served her with a ‘packet’ of macadamia nuts at her first class seat – but not in a dish.

 

News of the incident went viral last week and over the weekend and it has not been received at all well by the Korean public, or the Korean Transport Ministry. The latter body is continuing its investigation to see whether any rules were broken by ordering the plane back to the gate.

 

Meanwhile, Cho told a large crowd of waiting newspaper and television reporters last week that she was ‘sorry’ for the incident and would personally apologise to the affected flight attendant.

 

FATHER TRIED TO DEFLECT BLAME ONTO HIMSELF…

Her apology was rapidly followed by one from her father, Korean Air Chairman and CEO and Chairman of the Hanjin Group, Cho Yang-ho.

 

He publicly took it upon his own shoulders to blame himself for his daughter’s behaviour and assured reporters and the public that she would no longer hold any positions within the airline or its affiliate companies.

 

Korean Air Chairman and CEO and Chairman of the Hanjin Group, Cho Yang-ho.

Several media organisations took news videos of the separate written apologies, while social media has also covered the unfortunate incident extensively since it broke last week.

 

In a general statement to all press at the brief conference last Friday, Cho said: “I sincerely apologise for causing trouble for everyone. I’m sorry. I am stepping back from management front. I have no other plans.”

 

Click here to see CNN’s news broadcast of both press conferences: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/12/12/lok-stout-korea-air-nutgate-executive-resigns.cnn.html