SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – When South Koreans heard that a Korean Air Lines executive delayed a flight because she was angry at being served macadamia nuts in a bag there was outrage but no surprise.
For many it was only the latest example of the high and mighty behavior they’d come to expect from the families who make up Korea’s dynastic business elite and dominate the economy.
In the headline hogging incident now dubbed “nut rage,” Cho Hyun-ah, the airline’s head of cabin service and daughter of its chairman, ordered a senior crew member off the plane, forcing it to return to the gate at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City.
Cho had quarreled with flight attendants in first class after one of them offered her bagged nuts instead of nuts served on a plate. Amid the storm of criticism, Cho resigned Tuesday as head of cabin service but remained an executive at the airline. That sparked another furor and Cho on Wednesday submitted a letter of resignation quitting all her roles.
Korean Air had defended her actions as a “natural” attempt to improve customer service. Yet for a public that has lost patience with impunity and double standards, it was an ugly display of entitlement. The local media labeled her “princess.”