Man fined 120,000 yuan for throwing coins into plane’s engine

With only a few cents, a man managed to earn himself a 120,000 yuan fine by throwing those coins at a plane’s engine.
Back on February 17, security personnel at the Anqing Tianzhushan Airport in Anhui province discovered two coins on the ground near the left-side engine of a Lucky Air plane that was preparing to fly to Kunming.
Upon questioning, one 28-year-old male passenger, surnamed Lu, admitted to having chucked the coins at the engine, believing that they would keep the flight safe from hazard.
In fact, a coin in a plane’s engine is something that might cause hazard. Out of safety concerns, the flight was canceled with all 162 passengers having to wait until the following day to fly to Kunming… well, 161 passengers as Lu was detained for 10 days following the incident.

Lucky Air had vowed to sue Lu for costs incurred by the delay and on Wednesday a court in Anhui ruled that he indeed must pay a 120,000 yuan ($17,000) fine for his actions.

Lu had pleaded guilty to the charges but had also attempted to throw part of the blame on the airline and airport, explaining that this was his first time flying and he was not aware that you were not supposed to throw things into a plane’s engine because no one had warned him.
Evidently, Lu is not alone in his ignorance. This kind of thing has happened at least eight timesin the last couple of years in China with the auspiciously-named low-budget carrier Lucky Air being most affected.
Things got so bad at one point last year that the airport in the Hainan resort city of Sanya briefly posted a signboard in its terminal warning passengers, in both Chinese and English, that it is illegal to chuck coins at planes, adding that such a move is “unsafe” and makes for “bad fortune.”

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