Heather Cho made headlines when it was reported that, as Korean Air's vice president, she turned a plane around in order to kick out a crew member. The story goes that Cho was served the nuts on a plane going from New York to Seoul when she didn't ask for them. Some news sources state that the nuts were also served in a bag instead of on a plate. Cho called over the head of service (the purser) and asked him to recite Korean Air's policy on serving nuts. When he wasn't able to answer correctly, Cho ordered that the plane turn around so that the purser could be kicked out. The order was followed; the plane returned to New York to drop off the purser before departing for Seoul again. In the end, the plane was 11 minutes late in arrival.
According to the Aviation Safety and Security Law, Cho has no authority to make these flight decisions. Only the captain is in charge of managing the attendants during the flight. Despite being the vice president, Cho was only a passenger, and according to the same law, passengers are prohibited from disturbing the flight crew's service with violence or threats. Passengers who do so are subject to a fine of up to 5 million won (approx. $4,510 USD) for endangering the safety of the flight.
PSPD claimed that Cho used aggressive, violent language with the purser, as they stated, "Former vice president Cho unilaterally said to the purser, 'Hey, you (censored), contact the captain quickly, tell him to turn [the plane around], and get off,' in that manner."
According to PSPD, after the plane landed in Korea, the staff was also coerced into saying fabricated statements about the incident in order to protect the former vice president.
Prosecution has secured a search and seizure warrant for Korean Air's offices in order to investigate further into the issue. Representatives stated, "As the nation is focusing its interest on this issue, we are hurrying to investigate." They continued, "We undertook a search and seizure warrant due to concerns that [Korean Air] was manipulating evidence."
Prosecution has sent detectives to search and confiscate materials related to the nut incident from the Korean Air headquarters located in Gangseo District, Seoul, as well as from their branch office located in the city of Incheon.
Prosecution says that so far they have found destroyed evidence relating to the incident. However, they were able to secure a cockpit audio recording file from the flight, the passenger list, and the flight record. They have demanded for a blackbox recording, but it remains unknown whether they have access to it. Meanwhile the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport is requesting for communication files from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to hand over to prosecution.
Prosecution will also be speaking with the pilot, co-pilot, attendant in charge of the first-class seats, and the attendant in charge of the general admission seats. They will also be asking for cooperation from first-class passengers and passengers who sat near the first-class section. Afterwards, they will be investigating vice president Cho. In the meantime, Heather Cho is banned from leaving the country.
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