SEOUL, South Korea — A former Korean Air vice president who ordered a plane back to its gate in a fit of anger over how she had been served macadamia nuts was convicted Thursday of violating aviation safety law and sentenced to a year in prison.

The executive, Cho Hyun-ah, whose father is the airline’s chairman, became an object of international ridicule after the Dec. 5 episode, in which she forced a Korean Air plane taxiing at Kennedy International Airport in New York to return to the gate so the chief steward could be removed. She was said to have been angry that a first-class flight attendant had served the nuts without first asking her, then in an unopened package rather than on a plate.

A district court in Seoul ruled Thursday that Ms. Cho had illegally forced the flight to change its route by ordering it back to the gate. Her conduct subjected the passengers to potential danger, the court said.

“She forced the plane to turn around as if it were her own private plane,” Judge Oh Seong-u said in announcing the sentence.