Korean Air Executive Resigns Post After Halting Flight Over Snack Service
By CHOE SANG-HUNDEC

SEOUL, South Korea — Drunken and boorish behavior, cellphones, crying children and reclining seats have all led to episodes of flight rage. But a bag of macadamia nuts?

Criticism has come nonstop for Korean Air Lines since it was discovered that one of its executives had ordered a flight from New York to Incheon, South Korea, to return to the gate to kick the senior flight attendant off the plane in a tiff over how the executive was served the nuts.

This was no ordinary executive on Korean Air Flight 86, as it turned out: Cho Hyun-ah was not only in charge of in-flight service for Korean Air, but is also a daughter of the chairman of the family-run conglomerate that operates the airline.

Ms. Cho, who resigned Tuesday after an outburst of another sort of rage — on social and traditional media — became irate on Friday after a flight attendant served nuts without first asking her, and in an unopened package instead of on a plate.

She summoned the chief flight attendant and grilled him on the rules for serving nuts. He fumbled, Korean Air officials said, and Ms. Cho wanted him out, then and there.

The episode made Ms. Cho the latest symbol of excess at the country’s conglomerates, known as chaebol, whose controlling families have long been accused of running their companies like dynasties.

Bloggers ridiculed Ms. Cho, who also uses the given name Heather, for “going nuts over nuts.” “She is a national embarrassment to all of us,” one Internet user said on Korean Air’s official Facebook page. Some even likened the Cho family to that of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, who rules that country as a totalitarian fief.

By Tuesday, with many South Koreans calling for a boycott of Korean Air, which they nicknamed “Air Nuts,” the airline announced that Ms. Cho had resigned as the head of in-flight services, though not as a vice president. “I am sorry for causing trouble to the passengers and the people,” Ms. Cho said in a statement on Tuesday. “I seek forgiveness from those who were hurt by what I did.”

Korean Air said the jet was only about 35 feet from the gate at Kennedy International Airport when it returned. Still, the airline acknowledged that the decision had been “excessive” because there was no emergency. But the company also offered an excuse for Ms. Cho’s behavior, saying that it was “natural” for her to chastise the crew for improper in-flight service, and that the decision to take the plane back to the gate had been made in consultation with the pilot. That explanation, however, failed to soothe an angry South Korean public.

The episode cannot be explained “except by the fact that Vice President Cho Hyun-ah was a member of the chairman’s family,” said the civic group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. It said the case exemplified how the personal wishes of a member of the family that owns a leading South Korean conglomerate often override official regulations and common sense.

“No pilot is going to oppose an order from the daughter of the company owner,” said Lee Gae-ho, a lawmaker affiliated with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the main opposition party.

The South Korean Transportation Ministry said it was investigating whether Ms. Cho’s behavior had violated the country’s aviation safety laws, which bar passengers from causing disturbances, like using violent language or yelling. Local news media reported that Ms. Cho had screamed at the crew.

A handful of family-controlled conglomerates dominate the South Korean economy. Although they own relatively small stakes in their corporate empires — the Cho family owns about 10 percent of Korean Air, for instance — they are known to wield unchallenged authority over subsidiaries. The units are interlocked by cross-shareholdings, and family members and loyal executives occupy important posts. Ms. Cho’s father, Cho Yang-ho, the chairman of the Hanjin Group, has placed his three children in executive perches in the conglomerate, which also runs shipping, logistics and hotel businesses.

韓航公主耍官威 道歉辭職

大韓航空副社長趙顯娥上周搭乘自家飛機時，因空服員未按規定遞送堅果勃然大怒，要求已進入跑道的飛機返回登機門並把座艙長趕下機。「耍官威」事件引發南韓輿論抨擊，趙顯娥九日宣布請辭客艙服務主管等職務，南韓政府正研究她是否違反飛安法。

四十歲的趙顯娥透過韓航發表聲明說：「造成這樣的困擾，我對乘客和南韓同胞感到抱歉，我要向我可能傷害的人請求原諒。我將辭去所有韓航職務，為此事負責。」

她的父親、韓航社長兼執行長趙亮鎬已受理辭呈。韓航則表示，她仍會保有副社長頭銜。

趙顯娥五日搭乘紐約飛仁川的班機頭等艙時，因空服員未先詢問便遞給她一包堅果，也沒放在盤子上，皆未遵守韓航服務規定。她大發雷霆叫來座艙長質問，座艙長無法找到客艙服務手冊，趙顯娥指座艙長說詞「充滿謊言與藉口」，要求機長返回登機門，把座艙長趕下機，導致班機延誤十一分鐘抵達。

這起「堅果返航」事件引發南韓媒體群起砲轟有錢人目中無人。每日經濟新聞社論指出：「韓航老闆女兒的醜陋行為讓整個國家蒙羞，讓南韓在全球面前丟臉。韓航應處分趙顯娥，她也應為罔顧乘客安全向大眾道歉。」

東亞日報則表示，她的行為暴露了「有錢人普遍存在的優越感和高傲態度，顯然把公司當成自家王國」。

南韓公民團體「參與連帶」九日正式要求政府立案調查事件，政府則表示正研究趙顯娥是否以威嚇、職權或暴力危及飛安，若屬實將吃官司。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/asia/korean-air-executive-resigns-post-after-halting-flight-over-snack-service.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/asia-pacific/20141210/c10flight/zh-hant/

2014-12-10．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯莊蕙嘉