Former Korean Air vice president and “nut rage” heiress Cho Hyun-ah was fined 30 million won ($2,460) for assaulting her husband but cleared of abusing her twin children by throwing a spoon at them and verbally abusing them.
Judge In Jin-sup made the ruling recently, the Seoul Central District Court said on Thursday.
While it’s not yet known if Cho will appeal, her husband, surnamed Kim, has appealed, arguing the court’s decision on the child abuse was wrong.
Considering all the media attention surrounding this case I be this guy thought he would get a bigger pay out than this:
Former chief flight attendant Park Chang-jin speaks to the press at Gangseo Police Station in Seoul prior to former Executive Vice President Heather Cho’s indictment in early May. / Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon
The Seoul Western District Court ordered Korean Air, Wednesday, to pay former chief flight attendant Park Chang-jin 20 million won ($17,779) in compensation for his suffering from the so-called “nut rage” incident.
However, the court dismissed his claim for compensation from the carrier’s former Executive Vice President Heather Cho, the elder daughter of the conglomerate’s owner.
The Washington Post has an interesting in-depth update on the key players from the infamous “Nut-Rage” incident in South Korea:
Cho Hyun-ah
Cho Hyun-ah, the Korean Air heiress who achieved global notoriety in the 2014 “nut rage” incident, returned to the public eye last month, accompanying her father as he ran with the Olympic torch when the relay passed through Seoul.
Korean Air is an official partner of the Winter Games, which open in PyeongChang on Friday, and Cho’s father is the chairman of the company — called “owner” in Korean because, although it is publicly listed, the company is in many ways still operated like a family business.
Running with her father and sister, Cho wore an official gray PyeongChang tracksuit and a smile.
Park Chang-jin is also trying to put on a smile these days. He was the chief flight attendant on Korean Air Flight 86 from New York to Seoul the day of the fracas over nut service in the first-class cabin, and his life has not been the same since.
“I loved my job, but then suddenly this incident with Ms. Cho happened,” Park said in an interview in Seoul. “I lost everything at that moment because someone who had power over me had this emotional outburst.” (…..)
When Park returned to work, he had to renew all his qualifications after more than a year off. He was repeatedly given failing grades on language tests — in Korean and in English — and began to suspect it was deliberate. He was assigned to economy class and often given the most menial tasks, including cleaning the toilets. [Washington Post]
You can read the rest at the link, but Cho’s sister has taken over her responsibilities at Korea Air and is reportedly the one leading the revenge against the flight attendant Park Chang-jin.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out because I would think Korean Air probably retaliated against him after closely consulting with an army of lawyers on how to legally do it:
The whistle-blower who exposed the actions of the Korean Air chairman’s daughter who forced a plane to return to its gate in a tiff over macadamia nuts is suing her and the airline, accusing them of illegally demoting and ostracizing him.
“My case illustrates how those who say no to economic power in South Korea come under a systematic attack from their organization,” the whistle-blower, Park Chang-jin, said during a news conference on Monday. “I hope my case will help our society to think about the dignity and rights of common workers.”
The 2014 episode, which became known as a case of “nut rage,” led to international condemnation and ridicule of the chairman’s daughter, Cho Hyun-ah, after she became angry that a first-class flight attendant served the nuts without first asking her, then in an unopened package rather than on a plate, according to court documents.
Ms. Cho was vice president at the company at the time. (…..)
Mr. Park took a leave of absence to recover from a psychological trauma. And when he returned to work in May of last year, Korean Air demoted him from cabin crew chief to flight attendant, citing what it called his poor English. He and his lawyers said the demotion was an illegal retaliation against his whistle-blowing. [New York Times]
I would be very surprised if the appeals court ruling acquitting Cho is overturned because really is what she did worthy of going to jail for a whole year?:
South Korean prosecutors on Thursday appealed a court decision that acquitted the eldest daughter of Korean Air’s chairman of disrupting a flight in a rage over macadamia nuts.
Cho Hyun-Ah, who had been in jail since her arrest in December, walked free last week after an appeals court overturned her conviction for violating aviation safety laws.
The prosecutor’s office in Seoul announced that it had submitted an appeal with the Supreme Court to reverse the verdict. [AFP]
It was only a matter of time before Heather Cho would be acquitted. She was publicly shamed and the media attention has long since moved along so the time was right to let her walk:
A Seoul appeals court Friday acquitted a former Korean Air Lines vice president of charges of changing the route of a flight in the so-called “nut rage” case.
The Seoul High Court sentenced Cho Hyun-ah to 10 months in prison, but suspended the prison term for two years, freeing her several months after she was put behind bars in December.
A lower court delivered a one-year sentence in December, convicting her of the flight route change to endanger flight safety as she forced the chief steward off a taxiing flight because she was served nuts in an unopened bag instead of on a plate. [Yonhap]
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