Flight delayed after woman tosses coins into engine

AN ENTIRE plane load of people were evacuated and their flight was delayed for hours after a passenger performed a “good luck” blessing before the flight.

A CHINA Southern Airlines flight was stuck in Shanghai for five hours after an elderly woman threw coins into the engine for “good luck”.

The 80-year-old stopped on the tarmac to make “blessings” as she was boarding her Guangzhou-bound flight and then threw nine coins into the engine turbine, the New York Post reports.

Her “good luck” ritual prompted concerned passengers to alert airline staff, who conducted a full examination of the engine and evacuated 150 passengers.

the China Southern Airlines flight was delayed for more than five hours. Picture: Simon Casson/file image

Staff members found that one coin had landed in the engine and expressed concerns over the potential damage it could have caused had it been sucked into the mechanism.

The woman was later detained by police, the airline said.

“After investigation the involved passenger surnamed Qiu said she threw coins to pray for safety. According to Qiu’s neighbour, Qiu believes in Buddhism,” police said, according to the Daily Mail.

The woman tossed the coins into the engine turbine.

The incident came just days after a passenger on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston tried to open an emergency door mid-flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing and causing it to be delayed by more than five hours.

Witnesses claim the woman “tore off” parts of the emergency exit door on the Southwest Airlines flight when she tried to force it open mid-flight

“Oh yeah, she tore off a piece of it. There was the frame, that was on the door. She ended up breaking it off,” one witness, Henrietta Mokwuah, told ABC13.

The passenger was questioned by authorities but has not been formally charged with any crime.

The original version of this article appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission.