Korean Air Suspected of Assigning "Revenge Schedule" to Park

Kinja'd!!! "SolitudeTM" (solitudetm)
02/02/2015 at 17:30 • Filed to: None

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Chang-jin Park, who was kicked off the LAX - ICN flight by the former vice president of Korean Air, has finally returned to his job as of February 1st as a chief flight attendant. The chairman and father of "Nut Queen" Heather Cho, Yang-ho Cho had promised at the court that there will never be any unfavorable treatment against Park and he as the chairman of Korean Air promises to do everything under his power to ensure Park's life at work would be returned to normal when he was questioned by the judge as a witness.

(Photo source: Yonhap News of Korea)

However, this promise seems to be already broken.

According to the supporters of Park, he returned to work from his sick leave on the 1st of February and was handed a very difficult schedule. Normally, Korean Air's flight attendants' schedule for one month consists of 2 or 3 long distance flights along with short distance flights in between. Most flight attendants prefer to be on a long distance flight because of higher flight compensation pay and longer rest times. However, Park's flight schedule consisted of all short distance flights with only one long distance flight to Rome.

Korean Air denies any possibility of intentionally assigning a difficult schedule to Park and says the process of schedule assignment is all random and automated. Many are finding this explanation hard to believe. Park is scheduled to fly with so-called "Flight Attendant with a Devil's Smile" on the only long distance flight he has on the schedule. She had initially testified against Park after Heather Cho allegedly promised her a position as a professor at Inha University, which is owned by Hanjin Group, who - you guessed it - also owns Korean Air and chaired by Yang-ho Cho, Heather Cho's father.

Furthermore, Park has spoken about unusually high attention on him within the company and the management treating him as "potentially problematic employee." He expects this treatment to continue.

It was big news couple weeks back when a text message from Heather Cho's younger sister got out to public. It said, "I will make sure to avenge my sister." It looks like the revenge is in progress already, and the sincerity of apologies by Heather Cho and her father seem questionable at best.

After all, Heather Cho's final stance at the court was that although she overreacted, it was initial lack of professionalism by Park and his lack of knowledge about the service manual which caused the problem in the first place. She then went on to place the blame on the captain for returning the flight when she told him to, her logic being the captain should have known that it was against the regulations and also should have been aware that even the vice president of the airline did not have such authority. Prosecutors are seeking 3-year sentence for Heather Cho. The sentencing should be held after 2 to 3 weeks.

It seems like "the Nut Queen" and her family are still stuck in their giant empire. Park is facing an extremely difficult battle and it seems that the best support he could get is continuous attention from the public.


DISCUSSION (9)


Kinja'd!!! SolitudeTM > SolitudeTM
02/02/2015 at 17:38

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I don't have approval to post on Flight Club and nobody looks at my blog so I decided to post this on OPPO. :p


Kinja'd!!! 505Turbeaux > SolitudeTM
02/02/2015 at 18:09

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I pushed it out to oppositeblog, maybe it will get picked up from there.

Interesting story though


Kinja'd!!! Snooder87 > SolitudeTM
02/02/2015 at 18:13

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Why would he go back to work? No shit he's done for.

The time to jettison for a different company is now, before his career is completely ruined.


Kinja'd!!! SolitudeTM > 505Turbeaux
02/02/2015 at 18:17

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Thanks. I appreciate it.


Kinja'd!!! SolitudeTM > Snooder87
02/02/2015 at 18:21

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He stated that he wanted to leave a precedence so that honest, hard-working people would never be subject to what he had to go through by those who think they own the working class and can do whatever they feel like doing. I think it's admirable.

Even if he jettisons to a different company, I don't know how he would be treated or even be accepted in the first place. The industry does not want whistle blowers... especially in Korea where families run gigantic empires. I do think that whichever company that publicly makes a good job offer to him will gain positive publicity, though.


Kinja'd!!! Snooder87 > SolitudeTM
02/02/2015 at 18:27

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Personally, I'd rather jump ship to one if their rivals or wrangle a talk show and get paid bank to bad mouth these assholes at every opportunity.

Cause given how they act, I'm sure they've made enemies at some point. Enemies that would be quite happy to piss on em when they're down.


Kinja'd!!! SolitudeTM > Snooder87
02/02/2015 at 18:33

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If I were in his shoes, yes, I would jump ship and never look back. But by hanging in there, I think he is causing more pain to Korean Air as now the public is looking at how they are treating him.

You probably don't understand how powerful and tied together are the so called "chaebol" in Korea are. It's a term that refer to families that own large group of companies such as Jung family of Hyundai, Lee family of Samsung, etc. These people consider themselves to be in a different class than all others, and they are too big for the government to touch (although I am sure many politicians are tied in with chaebols and are earning nice benefits). It's about time the public teach them a lesson.


Kinja'd!!! Conan > SolitudeTM
02/02/2015 at 18:57

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If he speaks other languages he should try to get himself a job outside of Korea. Sounds really creepy.


Kinja'd!!! SolitudeTM > Conan
02/02/2015 at 19:01

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I am sure he speaks good English because he is a chief flight attendant who is responsible for international flights with foreign passengers. I've never seen a flight attendant who cannot speak English. Chief flight attendants usually speak 1 or 2 more languages, judging from my experience with Korean Air (I'm a frequent flyer with them although I will switch to other airlines once I use finish using all my mileage. I should be done within my next flight or so.).