by Our Foreign Desk

PAMPERED former Korean Air executive Cho Hyun Ah was released from jail yesterday after her one-year jail sentence for endangering air safety was reduced to 10 months and suspended for two years.

Ms Cho, the daughter of Korean Air chairman Cho Yang Ho, flew into a tantrum on board a New York-to-Seoul service last year when a flight attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of in a bowl.

She abused staff verbally and physically and ordered the chief flight attendant off the December 5 flight, forcing it to return to the gate at John F Kennedy Airport.

Seoul High Court ruled yesterday that her conduct had not violated aviation security law.

The lower court had convicted Ms Cho of forcing a flight to change its route, obstructing the captain in the performance of his duties, forcing a crew member off a plane and assaulting a crew member.

Prosecutors had called for three years in prison.

She made no comment as she left the court, bowing her head and covering her face.

The incident was a lightning rod for anger in a country where the economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates known as chaebol that often act above the law.

High Court senior judge Kim Sang Hwan said that, even though Ms Cho had used violence against crew members, she should be given a second chance, because she had undergone an “internal change” since beginning her prison term.

“It appears that she will have to live under heavy criticism from society and stigma,” he added.