A South Korean appeals court ordered the release on Friday of a former Korean Airlines executive, who was convicted after an outburst over the way she had been served macadamia nuts.
Heather Cho (Cho Hyun-ah) appeared outside of the courthouse out of her prison overalls and in an all-black ensemble after the court decided she was not guilty of breaching aviation law, thus suspending her jail sentence.
It was evident that the 40-year-old was looking very stressed and had lost quite a lot of weight. She looked plain and unmade-up which is a far cry from her usual elite style.
Back in December, Cho, who is the daughter of the president of the company was on a flight from New York. She objected to the way the macademia nuts were served to her, in an unopened packet instead of her preferred plate in first class.
She then went into a major tantrum against the cabin staff and even threw documents at them. She also forced the plane to return to its gate at New York's John F. Kennedy airport in order to expel the flight attendants. Her outburst has been dubbed as the "nut rage" incident.
Cho found herself in court and in prison for that outrage. She was sentenced in February to one year in prison and was released after serving only five months through a 12-month sentence.
Her lawyer said after the ruling that Cho regretted her actions and felt remorse for the suffering she caused everyone concerned. She apologized and asked for forgiveness to the staff who was caught in the crossfire of her angry tirade.
"The defendant would have had a chance to reflect sincerely on the mental anguish she caused in the victims during the five months she spent in the darkest place in society while in detention and away from family," Judge Kim Sang-hwan said.
The "nut rage" case caused an uproar in Korea, where many people are fed up with what they see as the abuse of power by the rich and arrogant. Cho is the eldest daughter of KAL's chairman Cho Yang-Ho.
