Cho Yang-ho sorry for ‘immature actions’ including disruption on flight in 2014 over a bag of nuts

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The chair of Korean Air, Cho Yang-ho, has apologised for what he called the immature behaviour of his two daughters and said they would both immediately resign from their company posts following separate controversies.

Cho Hyun-min, the younger daughter, who is a marketing executive at the South Korean flag carrier, is under police investigation for assault after she was accused of throwing water in a man’s face at a business meeting.

Four years ago her older sister, Cho Hyun-ah, made global headlines for kicking a cabin crew member off a plane after being served macadamia nuts in a bag rather than a bowl, an incident that became known as “nut rage”.

“As chairman of Korean Air, as well as a father, I feel terrible about the immature actions of my daughters,” Cho said in a statement. “Everything is my fault and my wrongdoing. I apologise to the people.”

Cho said his two daughters would immediately step down from all positions in the company.

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Seoul police said last week that they were launching a formal investigation into the younger Cho, based on the testimonies of people at the meeting.

Following the incident, the 34-year-old issued an email apology to everyone she had worked with for her behaviour, although she has denied throwing water in anyone’s face.

In the 2014 “nut rage” incident the older Cho, then the firm’s vice-president, forced two flight attendants to kneel and beg for forgiveness on a Seoul-bound flight from New York before ejecting one of them from the plane before takeoff.

The incident was one of the most infamous cases involving offspring of one of South Korea’s business elite families whose behaviour regularly make headlines.

The heiress was jailed but returned to work as an executive of Korean Air’s hotel affiliate in March.