Copied from South East Asia Forum.
It is alleged,...Ain't the first time " Fiona " Heather Cho has caused grieve to the Korean Air crew.
Some years ago when the inflight sales wasn't up to her expectations, she set strict targets for each designated sales crew ( responsible for notching up sales ). If they did not meet the targets, they were given a severe dressing down with threats of job termination. Most of them bought the inflight stuff themselves with their own hard earned money in order to meet the targets. Those who couldn't afford had to quit; It is alleged, a few distressed one actually committed suicide!
The ones who bought the inflight sales stuff just to meet their targets ran afoul of the strict South Korean customs authorities costing them fines imposed. They were worser off as the Customs authorities then reported to the company that the crew members had breached the " no duty free allowance crew rule " and recommended their job terminations! They just couldn't escape that vicious cycle. So some poor depressed ones committed suicide because it was a severe loss of esteem to have been fired for " customs fraud ", or to have lost jobs with the prestigious " national flag carrier "
Throughout the flight, the crew actually have very little sense of situational awareness with regards to safety...they were very very preoccupied with meeting inflight sales targets and not offending " fiona "!