South Korean prosecutors are seeking to arrest the former executive at Korean Air Lines who forced a flight to return in a row over a bag of macadamia nuts and a current executive for attempts to cover up the “nut rage” case.

Seoul western prosecutors’ office said on Wednesday that Cho Hyun-ah faces charges including inflight violence and changing a flight route. The current airline executive, a 57-year-old man surnamed Yeo, faces charges of pressuring airline employees to cover up the incident, according to an official at the prosecutors’ office.

Cho, the daughter of the Korean Air chairman, earlier this month resigned as vice-president at the airline and from all roles from the airline’s affiliates as public outrage mounted over her behaviour. On 5 December she forced a plane bound for South Korea from the US to return to a gate and forced off a flight attendant because the nuts were served in a bag and not on a plate.

Prosecutors launched an investigation over the incident after a civic group filed a complaint against Cho. Last week, the transport ministry also reported Cho to prosecutors and said it would sanction Korean Air Lines for pressuring employees to lie during a government inquiry.

Chang Man-yong, a transport ministry official, said the ministry had asked prosecutors to investigate an official suspected of leaking secrets about the ministry’s inquiry into Yeo, the 57-year-old Korean Air executive. The government official, surnamed Kim, worked at Korean Air for 15 years before getting a job at the transport ministry.

When as part of the ministry investigation Kim questioned the crew member who had to leave the plane, Yeo, the executive facing the charge of trying to cover up the incident, sat next to the crew member, Chang said. South Korean media reported that prosecutors raided Kim’s house and office, but the prosecutors’ office declined to confirm the report.

Cho, 40, and her father apologised earlier this month, but a new furore has erupted over Korean Air’s attempt to foil government investigators. The public was also enraged because the transport ministry let a Korean Air executive sit in during the questioning of the crew member and because a majority of the ministry investigators formerly worked at Korean Air, South Korea’s largest air carrier.

• The headline of this article was amended on 26 October to more accurately reflect the fact that the former executive was facing arrest