A Chinese passenger is facing criminal charges for throwing coins into a plane's engine.
A popular Chinese tradition of throwing coins for good luck hasn't proved to be very lucky for one man. A Chinese passenger will face criminal charges for throwing coins into an airplane's engine, leading to cancellation of the flight and a loss of $20,000 to the airline. South China Morning Post reports that the incident occurred on February 17 at the Anqing Tianzhushan Airport in China. The airline, ironically, is named Lucky Air.
The incident came to light after security workers discovered two coins on the ground near the left-side engine of Lucky Air flight 8L9960 to Kunming. On questioning, a 28-year-old man, surnamed Lu, admitted to having thrown coins into the plane's engine for good luck, believing it would keep the flight safe.
The flight had to be cancelled out of safety concerns, inconveniencing 162 passengers who had to be accommodated onto other flights. Shanghaiist reports that Lucky Air claims to have suffered a loss of 1.4 lakh yuan and will pursue legal action against Mr Lu.
If a coin is sucked into an aircraft engine, it may severely damage the rapidly-spinning turbine and cause engine failure, leading to serious safety hazards if the plane is in flight, engineers said in a report about the incident, according to South China Morning Post.
This is definitely not the first time that something like this has happened in China.
In 2017, an 80-year-old passenger delayed a flight from Shanghai for several hours after throwing nine coins into the plane's engine. In the same year, a few months later, a 76-year-old woman led to the grounding of a Lucky Air flight after throwing coins into the engine.
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