On Wednesday, a plane in China was delayed for over four hours due to a passenger throwing coins into the engine, according to Chinese state media.
China Southern Airlines flight CZ8805 was supposed to leave from Sanya and go to Beijing at 10 a.m the plane was supposed to leave at 2 p.m on March 6, but it didn’t leave until around 2:16 p.m the time in the area, as shown on the websites Flightradar24 and Flight Aware, which track flights.
In a video posted by many news channels, a flight attendant talks to a passenger who is suspected of throwing coins. The flight attendant asks how many coins were thrown into the airplane’s engine. The person in the video did not say their name, but they were heard saying “three to five” coins.
The person who reportedly threw coins was taken away by airport police, according to Chinese Southern Airlines.
The airline found coins during security checks, but didn’t say how many they found.
“The people who fix the airplane checked to make sure it was safe and found that everything was okay before it took off,” the airline’s customer service told the news.
‘A prayer for a safe plane journey’
China Southern Airlines posted a message on their social media account warning people not to throw coins at their planes because it could be dangerous and could result in punishment. But they didn’t mention a specific incident.
In China, there have been more cases of people throwing coins at planes for good luck.
In October, a flight from China Southern Airlines was late in Guangzhou because a person threw coins at the plane. In 2021, a GX Airlines flight from Weifang to Haikou was stopped because some coins wrapped in red paper were found on the ground. In 2017, an old person threw coins at a China Southern Airlines plane in Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport before boarding. They said it was to pray for a safe flight.