An inflight incident that forced a Korean Air plane back to the gate on December 5, 2014 sparked a major backlash in South Korea and hogged headlines around the world. Cho Hyun-ah, who was head of cabin service at Korean Air and the daughter of its Chairman, was taking a flight from New York to Incheon as a first class passenger. She was enraged over being served macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a plate. She thought was a breach of service protocol in first class and ordered the plane back to the gate so the steward could be offloaded, before the plane proceeded on its journey.

The incident, later dubbed "nut rage", caused public outrage and caused Ms. Cho to be removed from all executive roles at the airline. South Korea's transport ministry also accused Korean Air of safety risks after its chairman's daughter overruled the captain of a flight to force the plane back to the gate.