Despite its auspicious name, it appears that passengers are still reluctant to completely put their faith in Lucky Air with yet another one of the airline’s flights canceled after a passenger tried throwing coins in the plane’s engine before takeoff.
On February 17th, security personnel at the Anqing Tianzhushan Airport in Anhui province discovered two coins on the ground near the left-side engine of Lucky Air flight 8L9960 to Kunming. Upon questioning, one 28-year-old male passenger, surnamed Lu, admitted to having chucked the coins, believing that they would keep their flight safe from hazard.
In fact, a coin in a plane’s engine is extremely dangerous. 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 promptly detained.
Lucky Air has claimed that the incident resulted in 140,000 yuan ($20,000) in losses and has said that it plans to pursue legal action against Lu.
This is at least the fourth time that this has happened in China. Even more incredible is the fact that three of these incidents have now taken place at the Anqing airport, two of them involving Lucky Air flights to Kunming.
The first such incident occurred in June 2017 when an 80-year-old threw 1.7 yuan in change into the engine of a China Southern Airlines’ plane at the Shanghai Pudong airport to “pray for a safe flight,” thus causing a five-hour delay and 1 million yuan in damages. Despite this, the woman was not charged with any crime due to her old age.
This was followed several months later by a 76-year-old granny flinging coins into the engine of a Lucky Air flight from Anqing to Kunming. The woman was detained but appears to have never been prosecuted.
Finally, just last month at the Anqing airport, a China Eastern Airlines flight was delayed when workers found two coins lying on the ground near the plane’s engine. When questioned, none of the passengers fessed up to having done the flinging.
