Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Woman detained by police after throwing six coins at plane to ‘pray for safe flight’

The flight was delayed by two hours

Helen Coffey
Wednesday 17 April 2019 11:46 BST
Comments
The Tianjin Airlines flight was transferred to a replacement aircraft
The Tianjin Airlines flight was transferred to a replacement aircraft

A woman was detained by police after throwing six coins at a plane to “pray for a safe flight”.

The 66-year-old female passenger, referred to only as “Yang”, was spotted tossing the coins from the steps up to the aircraft by a member of cabin crew, who alerted security.

She was removed from the plane and the Tianjin Airlines flight from Hohhot Baita International Airport in Inner Mongolia to Chifeng city in the same province was delayed by two hours before taking off on a replacement jet.

Flight GS6681 had to wait while staff searched the tarmac for the six one jiao coins to ensure none of them had been thrown into the engine, Tianjin Airlines said in a statement on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

The female passenger could be punished further by the airline for the security scare.

It’s far from the first time a flight has been delayed by coin tossing, a common “good luck” ritual in China.

Two women were detained in March for throwing coins at a Lucky Air plane for luck.

The passengers were boarding a flight from Jinan in China’s Shandong province to Chengdu in Sichuan when they threw the coins.

Flight 8L9616 was delayed by two hours while crew checked the aircraft engine.

It followed a passenger being sued by the same airline, Lucky Air, in February for throwing coins into the engine.

The domestic flight, from the city of Anqing to Kunming, was grounded due to safety concerns. The 162 passengers were flown the next day following a full engine check.

The budget carrier claimed the flight cancellation cost in the region of 140,000 yuan (£16,000), and announced legal action would be taken against the passenger.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in