Korean Air VP Heather Cho, who delayed a plane because she was angry with the way she had been served nuts by a flight attendant, has resigned, the airline announces.
Heather Cho, who is also the daughter of Korean Air chairman, had demanded the crew member be removed from a flight on December 5 for failing to serve the nuts on a plate.
The Incheon-bound flight had to taxi back to the terminal in New York.
Korean Air has apologized, but said Heather Cho had had the support of the pilot.
The flight eventually arrived in South Korea 11 minutes behind schedule.
Local media reports said that a junior attendant had offered Heather Cho macadamia nuts in a bag, instead of serving the nuts on a plate.
Heather Cho then questioned the chief flight attendant over in-flight service standards and ordered him off the plane.
The airline told Korea Times that checking quality of service was one of Heather Cho’s jobs, as she was responsible for in-flight service for the carrier.
It also said the crew member had replied with “lies and excuses” when challenged over the correct nut-serving procedure.
However, transport authorities are investigating whether Heather Cho’s actions infringed aviation law.
“Even though she is senior vice-president at the company, she was a passenger at that time, so she had to behave and be treated as a passenger,” a South Korea transport ministry official told reporters.
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Asiana Airlines shares fell nearly 6% in Seoul, after one of its planes crash landed in San Francisco over the weekend.
US investigators have said the Boeing 777 was “significantly below” its target speed near the runway and the pilot tried to abort the landing.
The aircraft with 307 people came down short of the runway on Saturday, killing two people and injuring dozens.
Analysts said the incident may hurt the South Korean carrier’s earnings in the near term.
“Any airline that goes through a crash landing does take a hit to its reputation in the short term,” said Chris De Lavigne, an aerospace analyst with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
“We are likely to see some people cancel their bookings and think whether it is safe to fly Asiana, until there is sufficient reassurance from the airline that it has found the root cause and sorted it out.”
Chris De Lavigne added that the airline may also have to face additional costs in the form of fines from the authorities and possible damages claims from some passengers.
Asiana Airlines shares fell nearly 6 percent in Seoul, after one of its planes crash landed in San Francisco
Five people are in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, hospital spokesperson Rachael Kagan said. Three others are being treated at Stanford Hospital.
Altogether 181 people were taken to hospital, mostly with minor injuries.
There were 291 passengers and 16 crew on board, Asiana said. All of the passengers have been accounted for.
Deborah Hersman, the chief of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told a news conference on Sunday that there was a call to increase the plane speed about two seconds before the impact.
She said the pilot then requested a “call to go around” and not land.
For its part, the South Korean airline has said that it is currently not aware of any engine or mechanical problems.
Yoon Young-doo, the head of the airline has said that he was not ruling out human error but added the pilots were experienced veterans.
Analysts said that while it was too early to make any conclusions, the airline needed to act fast to recover from the incident.
“The first thing for Asiana to do is to really get down to the bottom of why this crash occurred,” said Chris De Lavigne.
“And if it is down to human error, make sure that it puts the procedures into place to ensure that it never happens again.”
However, he added that the airline had a good overall reputation and was “very well run”.
As for Boeing, analysts said that the incident was unlikely to have any impact on the plane maker’s reputation, not least because the airlines has so far ruled out any engine or mechanical problems.
The 777 aircraft is used by many major airlines and has a good safety record.
The only previous notable crash of a 777 plane occurred when a British Airways flight landed short of the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport in 2008.
The Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft with 307 people on board that crash-landed at San Francisco airport killing two people did not have mechanical problems, an airline official has said.
The head of the South Korean airline Asiana, Yoon Young-doo, did not rule out human error but said the pilots were experienced veterans.
Most of the 307 people on board were injured, 49 of them seriously.
The plane came down short of the runway, ripping off its tail, after apparently hitting a sea wall.
One survivor said the plane came in to land too fast and too low, but there was no warning of problems.
Passengers and crew escaped down emergency slides as it burst into flames.
Yoon Young-doo apologized “deeply” for the effect the accident had had on all those involved, bowing in front of TV cameras at a Seoul news conference.
He said there was no emergency alarm and the crew had made the usual requests to passengers to fasten their seatbelts to prepare for landing.
“Currently we understand that there were no engine or mechanical problems,” he said.
The pilots were veterans, he added, and one had more than 10,000 flying hours.
Asiana confirmed that two female Chinese teenagers died in the crash. They had been seated at the back of the aircraft.
They are believed to be the first-ever fatalities in a Boeing 777 crash.
The twin-engine aircraft has a good safety record for long-haul and is used by many major carriers.
The Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft with 307 people on board that crash-landed at San Francisco airport killing two people did not have mechanical problems
The only previous notable crash occurred when a British Airways plane landed short of the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport in 2008.
Boeing said in a statement it would provide technical assistance to the investigation.
Five people are in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, hospital spokesperson Rachael Kagan said. Three others are being treated at Stanford Hospital.
Altogether 181 people were taken to hospital, mostly with minor injuries.
There were 291 passengers and 16 crew on board, Asiana said.
Nationalities on board included 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans and 61 US citizens, the airline said.
All of the passengers have been accounted for.
Footage of the scene showed debris strewn on the runway and smoke pouring from the jet, as fire crews sprayed a white fire retardant into gaping holes in the craft’s roof.
One engine and the tail fin were broken away from the main wreckage.
Passenger Ben Levy said there had been no warning of problems, although the plane appeared to be coming in too fast and too low.
“It happened in a flash, nobody was worried about anything,” he said.
But once the aircraft crashed, “there was chaos, disbelief, screaming”.
“My seat had been pushed to the floor, it was a mess everywhere,” Ben Levy recalled.
Nevertheless, people “calmed down pretty quickly” and evacuated the plane without pushing or stepping on each other.
Meanwhile another passenger, David Eun, tweeted a picture of people evacuating down the plane’s emergency inflatable slides and wrote: “I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m ok. Surreal…”
A witness to the crash, Ki Siadatan, said the plane “looked out of control” as it descended over San Francisco Bay to land just before 11:30.
Arrivals and departures at the San Francisco airport have been suspended since the incident.
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An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft has crash-landed at San Francisco international airport.
There is no word so far on casualties. The aircraft operated by the South Korean airline Asiana had taken off from Taipei and was on the runway, with plumes of smoke rising from it.
Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft has crash-landed at San Francisco international airport
Pictures posted on Twitter showed passengers jumping down the inflatable emergency slides and leaving the area.
Firefighters and rescue teams are at the scene. The cause of the emergency is not known.
It is not known how many people were on board – the Boeing 777 can carry as many as 300 passengers.
Asiana is South Korea’s second-largest airline.
Passenger David Eun tweeted: “I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m ok. Surreal…”
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