$18,000, 5 Years In Prison: The Cost of an In-Flight Tantrum
Jeff Edwards December 21, 2018
This week, Korean Air was ordered to pay nearly $20,000 to a flight attendant who was publicly humiliated by airline executive (and the owner’s daughter) Cho Hyun-ah. The heiress made headlines in 2014 by ordering an international flight back to the gate where crew members were ejected from the plane for serving nuts in a bag rather than a bowl in the first-class cabin.
When senior flight attendant Park Chang-jin was ordered off of a John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Incheon International Airport (ICN)-bound flight for serving a snack in the wrong dish, it seemed like it might be the lowlight of his career. In a lawsuit, the airline employee claimed the headline-grabbing incident was only the beginning of his woes.
The cabin crew member says he was demoted for speaking out about his ordeal. He also claims to have suffered constant verbal abuse from superiors at the airline and says he has been forced to use months of sick time to deal with the clinical depression and anxiety that he attributes to a hostile work environment following the infamous “nut rage” episode.
“I have suffered physically and psychologically,” Park Chang-jin told reporters earlier this year. ”I want to fight for my rights, even though I am just a little guy up against a huge company. I want our people to think about what’s wrong and what’s right.”
Now, a South Korean court has ordered the carrier to pay damages to the mistreated worker. This week, Korean Air was ordered to pay 20 million won or around $17,800 to Park Chang-jin.
He had originally sued both the airline and Cho Hyun-ah, the heiress and airline executive who ordered him removed from the flight. The court ruled, however, that Cho Hyun-ah could not be held personally liable. She has already been removed from her position at the airline and was held criminally accountable for her actions during the flight. She was, however, reportedly released from jail after serving a few weeks of a two-year prison sentence.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
The headline says "5 years", but the article says she only served a few weeks of a 2 year sentence
Did I miss something or is the headline wrong? Who spent 5 years in prison? The heiress was given 2 years and left in a few weeks (of course). This dude may get some cash and some good karma from this episode, but in the end she's gonna be just as rich as before and he'll be kicked from the industry.
So how is this headline correct -- $18,000 and 5 years in prison, when a) she didn't pay the $18K; Korean Air did and b) article claims she served a few weeks of a 2-year prison term? Even "b" is incorrect. According to the Korean press and world press, she was initially sentenced to 1 year in prison; not for the "nut rage" but for causing the pilots to divert the plane back to the gate; said sentence to reduced to a 10-month sentence, suspended for 2 years. How this becomes "5 years in prison" is curious. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/05/116_179418.html 2 years later the suspension was upheld: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-5201317/Top-S-Korean-court-spares-nut-rage-heiress-jail.html Annoyingly, this was the subject headline on the FlyerTalk email on Dec 22nd. Even more annoyingly, there was no link to this article in the email. Clickbait is not a good thing. Neither is sloppy reporting.
Your write-up says nothing about five years in prison......."reportedly released from jail after serving a few weeks of a TWO-YEAR prison sentence".