Korean Air CEO's daughter sorry for tantrum in meeting

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Korean Air planes on the tarmac at the airportImage source, AFP/Getty
Image caption,

Cho Hyun-min is a senior vice-president at Korean Air, her father's company

The youngest daughter of the CEO of Korean Air has apologised after allegedly throwing a bottle of water at a wall during a company meeting.

Cho Hyun-min, 36, a Korean Air senior vice-president, also reportedly splashed water in a colleague's face.

She said she had been "foolish and reckless", but a spokesperson for the airline denied the latter accusation.

She is the younger sister of Cho Hyun-ah - the airline heiress who infamously delayed a flight over a packet of nuts.

The antics of wealthy business families in South Korea often make headlines.

According to local media reports, Ms Cho, who is also known as Emily, lost her temper because she was unhappy with answers to her questions during a meeting.

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She issued an apology for the incident on her Facebook page on Thursday.

"I apologise with my head down for my foolish and reckless behaviour," she said.

"I have no words to say for my action that I should not have done under any circumstances."

An airline spokesman denied water was thrown at an employee during the incident.

"During the meeting, she thought the manager's answer was not sufficient, so she threw a water bottle on the floor, not at the manager's face," the spokesman told Reuters news agency.

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Ms Cho's sister spent several months in prison before being released on appeal

The new incident has caused South Koreans to complain about the family again - making them trend on Twitter.

The owners of Korean Air have been under intense scrutiny since Ms Cho's sister, who is also known as Heather, famously flew into a rage when macadamia nuts were served to her in a bag and not on a plate on a Seoul-bound flight from New York in December 2014.

The case attracted intense attention in South Korea, reopening a national debate about the Korean business system, which is dominated by family firms known as chaebols.

The incident was eventually brought to trial, and Cho Hyun-ah was convicted of violating aviation safety, coercion and abuse of power in 2015.

An appeals court later reduced the sentence to a suspended term, and she recently returned to a management role at the firm's hotel wing.