Cho Hyun-ah, the Korean Air executive who lost her temper over a bag of macadamia nuts, is set to spend the next year eating prison food after she was found guilty in a Seoul court of violating aviation safety rules.
Cho, then head of in-flight services and the daughter of the airline’s chairman, ordered a Korean Air flight to abandon take-off and return to the terminal at New York’s John F Kennedy airport after becoming enraged with a steward for serving her nuts in a bag, rather than on a plate.
Judge Oh Seong-woo said Cho had “trampled on . . . human dignity” through her aggressive behaviour towards staff during the incident in December, and had treated the airliner like a “private plane”.