The daughter of Korean Air Line’s chief executive and chairman yesterday tried to visit a cabin crew chief to apologize for kicking him off an airplane over the way she was served some nuts, as allegations emerged that she forced him to kneel and ask forgiveness.
Cho Hyun-ah, a top executive at Korean Air, resigned on Tuesday from all her posts at the family-run flag carrier in the face of intense public backlash and escalating investigations by South Korean authorities.
The 40-year-old forced a New York-Seoul flight to return to the terminal and eject the head of its cabin crew on Dec. 5 after she took exception to the arrival of some macadamia nuts she had not requested — and to the fact they were served in a packet rather than a bowl.
Cho, sitting in first class, forced cabin manager Park Chang-jin and a female attendant to kneel in front of her, allegedly calling Park names, pushing him into the cockpit door and jabbing him with a service manual, according to his account of the incident.
Cho visited the homes of both staff members yesterday morning to offer a personal apology, but neither was home, so she left notes at their doors saying sorry, a company spokeswoman told reporters.
Cho said that she did not force the pair to kneel.
“I have never heard of such a thing. I do not know anything about it,” she said when reporters asked her to confirm the claims made by Park in an interview with Seoul’s KBS television station broadcast on Friday night.
Another passenger who was sitting in first class on the flight confirmed most of Park’s account and said that she saw the two attendants on their knees.
“I felt so sorry for the flight attendants, who looked totally terrified of her,” the passenger told KBS after meeting with Seoul prosecutors on Saturday to give testimony over the incident.
Park said in his interview with KBS that the incident had been deeply humiliating.
“You cannot imagine the humiliation I felt unless you experience it yourself,” he said. “She said: ‘Make contact [with air traffic control] right now to stop the plane. I am not going to let this plane go.’ How could I disobey the daughter of the owner in a situation like that?”
He has also claimed that Korean Air officials had for the past week pressed him to blame himself for the incident. The airline declined to comment on the claim.
Cho’s behavior sparked huge criticism in South Korea — where she has been accused of being petty and arrogant — and prompted the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Seoul prosecutors to launch investigations into whether she breached aviation safety laws and caused a disruption to business.
Korean Air chief executive Cho Yang-ho gave a televised news conference on Friday to apologize for his daughter’s “foolish act” and suggested that he should share some of the blame for not bringing her up correctly.
“I failed to raise the child properly. It is my fault,” he said.
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