Seoul - Korean Air apologised as it faced a media backlash over the daughter of the airline's CEO, who had a chief purser ejected from a plane in a furious reaction to being incorrectly served some macadamia nuts.
While insisting it was “reasonable” for its executive vice-president Cho Hyun-Ah to have raised a problem with the in-flight service, the airline admitted that forcing the New York-Seoul flight to return to its gate to remove the senior crew member had caused an unreasonable delay.
Cho, 40, is the daughter of the family-run carrier's CEO, and she has been widely criticised in the South Korean media for behaving in heavy-handed, imperious fashion.
“Korean Air apologises to its passengers for the inconvenience caused by the excessive behaviour of returning the aircraft and ejecting the flight attendant even though the circumstance was not an emergency,” the airline said.
An English-language version of the same statement omitted the mention of “excessive behaviour”.
The Seoul flight had just left its gate at New York's JFK airport on Friday when the incident occurred.
Cho took exception to the arrival of some macadamia nuts she had not asked for, and to the fact that they were served in a packet rather than a bowl.
She summoned the chief purser who, according to the Korean Air statement, replied with “lies and excuses” when challenged over his crew's knowledge of in-flight service procedures.
Cho then decided the chief purser was “incapable” and the plane returned to the gate where he disembarked.
The airline statement noted that the final decision to de-plane the employee was taken by the captain.
Transport Minister Suh Seoung-Hwan said on Tuesday the incident was being investigated and any regulatory breach would be “handled sternly”.
The media backlash against Cho has been extensive.
“This ugly behaviour by the Korean Air boss's daughter puts the entire nation to shame,” Seoul's top business daily, the Maeil Business Newspaper, said in an editorial.
“This is a global embarrassment for South Korea... Korean Air should punish Cho, and she should apologise to the public for disregarding passengers' safety,” it said.
The Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said Cho's action had exposed the “sense of entitlement and supercilious attitude” prevalent among the rich.
“Apparently some members of owner families like Cho see their companies like their own kingdom,” it added.
Cho, one of CEO Cho Yang-Ho's three children, joined the flag-carrier in 1999 and was promoted to vice-president this year.
A major Seoul civic group joined the fray, saying it would ask prosecutors to investigate Cho for a potential breach of aviation safety laws and disruption of business.
“Given the suffering of the cabin crew who were subject to such insult and abuse... the prosecutors should launch an investigation immediately to prevent similar abuse by high-level company executives in the future,” People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said in a statement.
A formal request for the probe would be filed on Wednesday, it added.
Sapa-AFP