Think about the riskiest things you have ever done because you felt superstitious. Now double the risk.
Mrs Qiu, an 80-year-old woman, was taken away by the Police in Pudong International Airport after throwing 9 coins into the plane engine for good luck.
According to the authorities, the lady is inclined to “miss the mark”: of the 9 coins she threw, only 1 actually hit the target.
Mrs Qiu’s actions, intended for good luck, actually meant very bad luck for the 150 passengers on board since it caused a delay of over 5 hours.
China Southern Airlines spoke to CNN about the delayed departure:
“To ensure flight safety, China Southern’s aircraft maintenance staff conducted a thorough inspection of the engine, which concluded at 4:53 p.m., and cleared the aircraft for takeoff.”
The flight was meant to take off at 12:40 pm but only left the airport at 6:16 pm. People missed all their commitments, but at least they were safe – is probably what Mrs Qiu would have said.
In a statement, Shanghai Police said:
‘The passenger surnamed Qiu, who has no prior criminal record or mental health issues claimed she tossed coins as a prayer for a safe flight.’
Irony abounds in this fascinating story; the total value of the coins adds up to 1.7 yuan which is about £0,20. However, the engine inspection and flight delay were estimated by local media to easily reach thousands of pounds. Oh! Mrs Qiu…
We are laughing, but, according to a professor at the Civil Aviation University of China, the engine of the aircraft could be destroyed if a coin was actually sucked into it. The professor told China Daily:
‘The engine could tremble, lose speed and even stop in mid-air if a coin were sucked into its core,’ he said. ‘That would put all the passengers on board at great risk.’
Coin-throwing was a somewhat popular trend in China in 2019, with at least 6 incidents registered that year.
Footage showed a 60-year-old woman with the surname of Chen, discreetly saying her prayers to the gods of air engineering. Chen was detained for seven days in Nanning, Guangxi province. According to China Southern Airlines, it was the woman’s first time flying – not her first-time throwing coins, though.
Chen’s prayers worked: for 78 minutes, the plane was not allowed to depart and stayed safely landed whilst engineers fixed Chen’s mess.
In the same year, a 31-year-old man with the surname of Xia was also detained for 10 days for the same reason. Speaking to the police, Xia blamed his mother-in-law saying she insisted he had to throw the coins to ensure the safety of his child who was flying for the first time.
Still, in 2019, two women in their mid-20s were removed from a Lucky Air flight after they each admitted to tossing a 1 yuan coin as they were boarding a plane at Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport in Shandong province.
But 2019 was not over yet. At least not until, a 28-year-old man was detained for seven days after he admitted to throwing two 1 yuan coins at another Lucky Air passenger jet in Anqing, Anhui province, causing the flight to be cancelled. Kids, let us please leave this trend where it belongs, in 2019 along with the “The theme is camp” and the kombucha girl memes.
