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Korean Air 'nut rage' exec freed by South Korean court

A South Korean court suspended the prison term of a former Korean Air executive known for a "nut rage" tantrum, immediately ending her incarceration.
Former Korean Air (KAL) executive Cho Hyun-Ah (C) leaves after she received a suspended jail sentence and was freed by a Seoul appeals court in Seoul on May 22, 2015. (Photo by Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty)
Former Korean Air (KAL) executive Cho Hyun-Ah (C) leaves after she received a suspended jail sentence and was freed by a Seoul appeals court in Seoul on May 22, 2015, after she had been jailed for a year in February for disrupting a flight in a rage over macadamia nuts.

A South Korean court on Friday suspended the prison term of a former Korean Air executive whose onboard "nut rage" tantrum delayed a flight last year, immediately ending her incarceration.

The Seoul High Court said Cho Hyun-ah, who is the daughter of the airline's chairman, did not violate the aviation security law when she ordered the chief flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight, forcing it to return to the gate at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

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The upper court sentenced Cho to 10 months in prison for assault and then suspended the sentence for two years. A lower court had earlier sentenced Cho to a year in prison. She has been locked up since her December arrest.

Cho achieved worldwide notoriety after an onboard tantrum triggered when a first class flight attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a dish. Cho, head of the airline's cabin service at the time, had a heated, physical confrontation with members of the crew.

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.