Chinese Man Arrested After Throwing Coins into Plane Engine

By Naomi Lounsbury

On February 17, yet another superstitious flyer tossed coins into the engine of a plane preparing to take off, grounding the aircraft at Anqing Tianzhushan Airport in Anqing, Anhui province.

According to Anqing Trend's official WeChat account, the coin thrower was not – as we initially suspected – a fengshui-loving, 80-year-old grandmother, but instead a 28-year-old man surnamed Lu.

As he was boarding the plane, Lu threw two coins into the engine of flight 8L9960, which was traveling from Anqing to Kunming.

Prior to takeoff, the flight crew noticed a coin on the ground and asked if anyone had thrown coins into the plane’s engine, to which Lu answered that he had thrown two RMB1 coins. The flight was then delayed while maintenance personnel hunted for the coins.

While the flight was originally scheduled to leave Anqing at 3.05pm on February 17, the plane was not able to leave the airport until 7.30am the following morning. A quick scan on Qunar revealed only one daily flight scheduled from Anqing to Kunming, so passengers were forced to wait until to coin was found.

According to the Independent and Anqing Trend's WeChat account, Lu didn't make the 7.30am flight because he was detained by the police. Lucky Air announced they will take legal action against Lu, with damages estimated to be around RMB140,000.

A month prior to this incident, Sina News reported that coins were found around the engine of China Eastern flight MU5540 from Anqing to Shanghai, causing that flight to also be delayed.

According to CNN, on June 28, 2017, a flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou was delayed when a superstitious elderly woman threw coins into the engine of flight CZ380, grounding the plane for more than five hours.

[Cover image via Anqing Tianzhushan Airport’s official WeChat account]

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