Fewer People Are Flying Korean Air Due To Nut Rage Incident

Looks like the pro-Cho crowd wasn't nearly big enough to replace the anti-Cho crowd. I'll admit that the nut rage incident did in fact leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Personally, this story has increased my desire to fly Korean 1st for those infamous macadamia nuts.

One part that has not been focused on, but is probably the most troubling, is that during her "incident" she was able to command the captain to return to the gate and unload the purser while allowing the person creating the disturbance (Cho) to remain on board. Even worse, the Korean regulators allowed this to go as they said he had no choice but to obey!

This, more than anything, makes me worry that the culture of safety at Korean is lacking....

@ Atif -- Well, to a large extent this has been focused on, and the general culture of following orders from higher ups is what has led to Korean Air's abysmal long term safety record.

The crash of KE8509 is the perfect example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Cargo_Flight_8509

So that's hardly new, unfortunately...

I mean there have also been no Chase transfers in that time...

Correlation is not causation.

@adamh,

Echo that. Ice cream sales and crime rates correlate too.

@Ben - I know KE had a slew of accidents and crashes in the '90s, but I had thought they had learned from it and had made changes. After all Flt 8509 was like 15 years ago and for the last 10 years the safety record has been pretty good. The nut incident makes me think things haven't changed all that much....

@ At -- Their safety record has been good the past decade, and I think that's largely also because they've started hiring expat pilots. So while they can change the specifics of pilot training, you can't change that Korean culture overall is very hierarchical, so you always listen to higher ups.

While she handled the situation badly, it does make me more inclined to fly them. Would that the little things mattered on certain other airlines.

Have you heard any updates about the ability to transfer UR to KE?

Do any other airlines offer macadamia nuts in first?

@ Mangoceviche -- Lufthansa does sometimes.

@ John -- Unfortunately not.

this story just keeps on giving. I love it.

Has nobody picked up on your obvious double entendre, Lucky? Sigh, sometimes I guess its just too easy 😛

interesting that Asiana traffic has picked up as their safety culture was similarly mediocre.

personally I won't fly either carrier when there are so many other safer choices. more award space for you!

I guess the attacked purser ended up showing Ms. Cho where to ultimately put the now infamous nuts in.

Heather Cho is awesome! I work for her and love her demanding ways. It makes the airline a great success!

I agree, nothing wrong with what she did.

she wants the servers to serve people correctly.

NO, actually, KE lose business prior to nut rage. it was actually KE lose to OZ in major Korean Company's annual cotract bid. Major Korean enterprises now use more OZ than KE, for example, Samsung and LG now all request employee must travel on OZ instead of KE.

@TVK & @Ben - What are you guys smoking, and where can I get some?

If I was the server and made the mistake, I would have willingly kneeled down to apologize. It is a sincere way to apologize. However, kicking him off the plane was a mistake. She should have let him stay on the plane to specifically serve her with extra care.

15 years is way too harsh a sentence. I mean really? 15 years for booting someone off a plane who failed to do their job correctly? Why did she have to resign? I don't see why an arrest was made?

Won't stop me from flying Korean Air.

I am majoring in management in college and admire her ability to command respect from her employees. Too many places have employees that are careless and don't follow rules and policies. I applaude her actions and feel she did not over step. Good managers like her run very successful businesses.

once this passes over, she will be back working making more employees bow down at her feet

it is common for Korean bosses to expect their employees to grovel at their feet when mistakes are made. It usually common for employees to act in an submissive nature toward their bosses. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred here.

Why is there so much support for this women? What she did was wrong. Ordering the pilot to change the flight schedule was out of line. Being mad, yelling, and even forcing the attendents to kneel before her was understandable, but changing the plane's flight schedule,,, that was unnecessary. Other punishments would have been smarter. No pay, loss of hours, maybe even a requiring a foot massage from the offending attendent back to Korea would have been a better choice.

She is a powerful lady in Korea.

I can appreciate her action. It is annoying when employees continually fail to obey policies. Sometimes a strict enforcement to make an example of someone is necessary.

I do not feel safe on an aircraft where the daughter of a President has more authority than the pilots and the crew. People like this do not belong in aeronautics or heavy industry, where people get killed because of their tantrums.