Judges at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors Office retired last week to consider their verdict on former Korean Air SVP of Inflight Service Heather Cho, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of breaking aviation law and disrupting a flight.

 

The charges – formally read out on national Korean television – carry a maximum custodial jail sentence of 10 years, although prosecutors are asking for three, following the now well publicised ‘nut-rage incident’.

 

Cho now faces multiple charges, including assaulting a senior flight attendant, delaying and endangering a New York JFK-Incheon flight by breaking aviation law and interfering in an investigation.

 

On December 5, she is alleged to have lost her temper in the First Class cabin after being served macadamia nuts in a packet instead of a bowl by a junior flight attendant.

 

 

 

 

The daughter of Korean Air Chairman and CEO Cho Yang-ho, Cho, is then alleged to have instructed the captain on flight KE086 to return the plane to the departure gate at New York JFK.

 

The senior flight attendant Park Chang-jin was subsequently instructed to leave the aircraft – allegedly for failing to ensure that a junior attendant followed proper procedure when serving nuts. (Cho was not on duty at the time, but flying as an ordinary passenger).

 

Park has since claimed that before being asked to leave the aircraft, he was humiliated and ordered to kneel before Cho as she prodded him with a service manual containing crew procedures. Cho’s lawyers have denied that any violence took place.

 

Cho’s father, Cho Yang-ho nevertheless publicly apologised in court last week for his daughter’s behaviour towards the senior flight attendant.

 

She also tearfully apologised for her behaviour to Korean Air’s staff, passengers and the general public and asked the court to let her return home to her young children as soon as possible.

 

 

 

As previously reported, Cho resigned all of her positions at KAL before she was arrested and taken to a detention house at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors Office on December 30.

 

South Korean prosecutors subsequently charged and further detained her on Wednesday, January 6. The court’s final verdict on all charges laid against her is now expected on Thursday February 12.

 

[Click here for the full background, as reported on December 31: http://www.trbusiness.com/index.php/regional/asia/16568-nut-rage-heather-cho-arrested-.html]