South Korean court awards flight attendant compensation over infamous 2014 ‘nut rage’ incident
- The employee was ejected from an aeroplane and later forced to grovel in apology after serving the airline’s heiress with nuts in a bag, not a bowl
Korean Air on Wednesday was ordered to pay 20 million won (US$17,750) to a flight attendant who was kicked off an aeroplane by the firm’s heiress in 2014 in the now infamous “nut rage” episode.
The incident, where heiress Cho Hyun-ah angrily ejected the chief of the cabin crew from a taxiing aeroplane after being served macadamia nuts in a bag instead of a bowl, made global headlines.
Park Chang-jin, the employee in question, earlier sued Korean Air claiming that the firm – South Korea’s flag carrier – unfairly demoted him to an ordinary cabin crew position for speaking out about the incident to the media.
He also sued the firm and Cho, seeking compensation for physical and psychological suffering. Cho, then the firm’s vice-president, had forced Park and another flight attendant to kneel before her to apologise.
A Seoul court accepted part of Park’s argument and ordered Korean Air to pay him 20 million won but dismissed the suit against Cho.
