Korean Air Heiress Freed from Jail in ‘Nut Rage’ Incident

kpride, May 22, 2015, 10:20 a.m.

Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah was given a two-year suspended sentence on appeal on Friday and is free to go home. A lower court in December sentenced her to a year behind bars over a fit of "nut rage" that exposed the carrier to global ridicule and stirred up fury at home over the feudal behavior of the super-rich.

The heiress has spent 143 days in jail after hitting flight crew and forcing a plane to return to the gate at New York's JFK International Airport in early December because she had been served macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate. She was convicted of endangering passenger safety by forcing a plane to change course.

The Seoul High Court said it took into consideration that she had shown remorse, is the mother of twins and it was her first offense.  The court overturned her conviction for forcing a plane to change course, saying the brief taxi back from the runway to the gate does.

She had been jailed since December for forcing a Korean Air flight departing from New York back to the gate because of the way her nuts were served -- in an unopened bag instead of on a plate.

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