Update | Daughter of Korean Air chief resigns after kicking out stewardess over bag of nuts

A top executive of Korean Air Lines resigned on Tuesday amid mounting public criticism that she delayed a plane over how she was served macadamia nuts.

Company officials said that Chairman Cho Yang-ho had accepted the resignation of Heather Cho Hyun-ah, his eldest daughter and an executive vice president.

The junior Cho was under public fire following media revelations that a recent Korean Air Lines flight from New York to South Korea returned to the gate because she ordered a senior crew member off the plane.

The crime? Allowing her and other passengers in the pointy end of the aircraft to be served bagged macadamia nuts instead of nuts on a plate.

Heather Cho, 40, was in a first-class seat on a flight bound from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for Incheon, near Seoul, on Friday.

Cho, a vice president at the airline, summoned the cabin crew chief to ask whether the flight attendant was following the in-flight service manual, said the industry official, who was briefed on the matter but declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.