Shares in Korean Air have fallen by two per cent after it was revealed the company would be sanctioned over its handling of an incident where one of its executives threw a flight attendant off a plane minutes before take-off.

Cho Hyun-ah is the daughter of Korean Air’s chief executive officer Cho Yang-ho, and until recently was the airline’s head of cabin service. She became enraged after being served a packet of nuts in a bag instead of on a plate in first class and ordered the attendant off the plane, despite the captain’s objections.

The Korean government plans to punish the company after it emerged that the Cho family had pressured cabin crew to give false accounts of the incident to government investigators.

The sanctions are expected to take the form of a fine or flight suspensions, according to senior aviation safety official Kwon Yong-bok. The pilot is not believed to be facing any punishment.