大闹航班的大韩航空"公主"辞职

SEOUL, South Korea — Drunken and boorish behavior, cellphones, crying children and reclining seat backs have all led to flight rage. But a bag of macadamia nuts?

韩国首尔——醉酒后的粗野举止、手机、哭闹的小孩，以及后仰的座椅靠背，都会使飞机上的乘客大为光火。但一袋夏威夷果仁呢？

Criticism has come nonstop for Korean Air Lines since it was discovered that one of its executives had ordered a flight from New York to Incheon, South Korea, to return to the gate to kick a senior staff manager off the plane in a tiff over how the executive was served the nuts.

有消息称，大韩航空(Korean Air Lines)的一名高管，因为乘务员给她送上坚果的方式而大发脾气，之后这名高管下令由纽约飞往韩国仁川的一架航班返回登机口，并将一名乘务管理人员赶下飞机。大韩航空因此不断受到指责。

This was no ordinary executive on Korean Air Flight 86, as it turned out: Cho Hyun-ah was not only in charge of in-flight service for Korean Air, but is also a daughter of the chairman of the family-run conglomerate that operates the airline.

事实证明，大韩航空KE86航班上的这名高管非同寻常：赵显娥(Cho Hyun-ah)不仅是大韩航空机舱服务的负责人，其父还是经营该公司的家族企业集团的会长。

Ms. Cho, who resigned Tuesday after an outburst of another sort of rage on social and traditional media in South Korea, became irate on Friday after a flight attendant served nuts without first asking her, and in an unopened package instead of on a plate.

因为韩国社交媒体和传统媒体爆发了另一种愤怒，赵显娥已于周二辞职。事件的起因是，上周五，一名乘务员未事先询问就为其送上了坚果，而且没有将其盛放在盘子里，而是直接送上了未开封的原包装，赵显娥十分愤怒。

She summoned the chief flight attendant and grilled him on the rules for serving nuts. He fumbled, Korean Air officials said, and Ms. Cho wanted him out, then and there.

她叫来了乘务长，并诘问后者为乘客送上坚果的规程。大韩航空的官员称，乘务长的回答有些笨拙，于是赵显娥要求他当场下飞机。

The episode made Ms. Cho the latest symbol of excess at the country’s conglomerates, known as chaebol, whose controlling families have long been accused of running their companies like dynasties.

经过这一事件，赵显娥成为了韩国大型企业集团，即所谓的“财阀”(chaebol)长期以来行事嚣张的最新标志。公众一直指责，控制着财阀的家族，经营企业的方式仿佛是王朝一样。

Bloggers ridiculed Ms. Cho, who also uses the given name Heather, for “going nuts over nuts.” “She is a national embarrassment to all of us,” one Internet user said on Korean Air’s official Facebook page. Some even likened the Cho family to the family of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, who rule that country as a totalitarian fief.

博客用户嘲笑又名希瑟(Heather)的赵显娥“因为一点零嘴就跟人斗嘴”。一位网友在大韩航空的Facebook官方页面上说，“我们所有人都觉得，她让整个民族难堪。”一些人甚至将赵显娥的家族，比作朝鲜领导人金正恩(Kim Jong-un)的家族。金正恩在朝鲜实行极权统治，仿佛该国是他的私人领地。

By Tuesday, with many South Koreans calling for a boycott of Korean Air, which they nicknamed “Air Nuts,” the airline announced that Ms. Cho had resigned as the head of in-flight services, though not as a vice president.

到了周二，因为许多韩国人呼吁抵制大韩航空，还给该公司起了“坚果航空”(Air Nuts)的绰号，大韩航空宣布，赵显娥已经辞去机舱服务负责人的职务，不过并未辞去副社长一职。

“I am sorry for causing trouble to the passengers and the people,” Ms. Cho said in a statement on Tuesday. “I seek forgiveness from those who were hurt by what I did.”

“对于给乘客和民众造成的麻烦，我表示歉意，”赵显娥在周二的一份声明中说。“我希望因为我的所作所为而受到伤害的人，能够原谅我。”

Korean Air said the jet was only about 35 feet away from the gate at Kennedy International Airport when it returned. Still, the airline acknowledged that the decision had been “excessive” because there was no emergency.

大韩航空称，飞机在肯尼迪国际机场(Kennedy International Airport)返回时，离登机口只有大约35英尺（约合10米）。但该公司承认，返回登机口的决定是“过分”的，因为并未发生紧急事件。

But the company also offered an excuse for Ms. Cho’s behavior, saying that it was “natural” for her to chastise the crew for improper in-flight service and that the decision to take the plane back to the gate had been made in consultation with the pilot.

不过该公司也给赵显娥的举动找了一个理由，称因机舱服务不当，她“自然”要惩罚乘务人员，并表示让飞机返回登机口的决定是与机长协商后作出的。

The explanation, however, failed to soothe an angry South Korean public.

然而，这样的解释未能缓和韩国民众的愤怒。

The episode cannot be explained “except by the fact that Vice President Cho Hyun-ah was a member of the chairman’s family,” said the influential civic group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. It said the case exemplified how the personal wishes of the family of a leading South Korean conglomerate often override official regulations and common sense.

只有“副社长赵显娥是会长的家庭成员这一事实”才能解释此事，颇有影响的民间组织参与民主人民联盟(People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy)说。该组织称，这一事件体现出，控制韩国大型企业集团的家族，可以将个人意愿凌驾于官方规章和常识之上。

“No pilot is going to oppose an order from the daughter of the company owner,” said Lee Gae-ho, a lawmaker affiliated with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the main opposition party.

“没有哪个机长敢反对公司老板的女儿给的命令，”主要反对党新政治民主联合(New Politics Alliance for Democracy)的议员李介昊(Lee Gae-ho)说。

The South Korean Transportation Ministry said it was investigating whether Ms. Cho’s behavior had violated the country’s aviation safety laws, which bar passengers from causing disturbances, like using violent language or yelling. The domestic news media reported that Ms. Cho had screamed at the crew.

韩国交通部称，正在调查赵显娥的行为是否违反了该国的航空安全法律。相关法律禁止乘客制造干扰，如使用激烈言语或高声叫喊。韩国国内媒体报道称，赵显娥曾对乘务人员大喊大叫。

Like other South Korean tycoons, Ms. Cho’s father, Cho Yang-ho, the chairman of the Hanjin Group, has placed his three children in executive posts in the conglomerate, which also runs shipping, logistics and hotel businesses.

和韩国的其他巨头一样，赵显娥的父亲、韩进集团(Hanjin Group)会长赵亮镐(Cho Yang-ho)在企业集团内部为三个子女安排了高管的职位。该集团还经营海运、物流和酒店业务。

A handful of family-controlled conglomerates dominate the South Korean economy. Although they own relatively small stakes in their corporate empires — the Cho family owns about 10 percent of Korean Air, for instance — they are known to wield unchallenged authority over their subsidiaries. The units are interlocked by cross-shareholdings, and family members and loyal executives occupy important corporate posts.

少数几家由家族控制的企业集团主导着韩国经济。尽管在自己的企业帝国持有的股份相对较少——比如，赵显娥的家族仅持有大韩航空约10%的股份——但众所周知的是，他们对其子公司拥有不容挑战的权威。这些企业通过交叉持股的方式环环相扣，家族成员和忠心耿耿的高管把持着重要职位。

Business elites in South Korea have long faced criticism that they act as if they were above the law. In 2007, Kim Seung-youn, chairman of the Hanwha conglomerate, was briefly jailed for attacking bar workers who had gotten into a drunken brawl with his son. While his bodyguards watched, Mr. Kim assaulted one of the victims with a metal pipe, the police said. He was released when his sentence was suspended.

长期以来，韩国的商业精英一直被批评，行事方式仿佛自己可以凌驾于法律之上一样。2007年，韩华(Hanwha)企业集团会长金升渊(Kim Seung-youn)因为袭击与其子酒后发生冲突的酒吧工作人员而被短暂监禁。警方称，金升渊当着保镖的面，用一根金属管殴打其中一名受害者。后来，金升渊在得到缓刑后获释。

And in 2010, a member of the family that controls the SK conglomerate received a suspended prison term for hitting a 52-year-old former union activist 13 times with an aluminum baseball bat while his executives watched. He then wrote out a check for 20 million won, about $18,000, on a company account and threw it in the victim’s face.

2010年，控制着SK集团的家族的一名成员，因为当着多名高管的面，用一根铝制棒球棒击打一名52岁的前工会活动人士13下而被判缓刑。后来，他用公司账户开了一张2000万韩元（约合11万元人民币）的支票，扔在了受害人脸上。

Some South Korean news outlets said that Korean Air’s action against Ms. Cho on Tuesday was superficial because she retained her vice-presidential title, as well as her executive roles in other subsidiaries of her father’s Hanjin Group.

一些韩国新闻媒体称，大韩航空周二对赵显娥的处理只是表面文章，因为她保住了副社长的职位，也保住了在其父的韩进集团其他子公司中的高管职务。