Coins thrown into plane engine by elderly passenger for 'luck'

[Gravitycollapse]

Source: BBC

A superstitious elderly passenger delayed a flight in Shanghai after throwing coins at the engine for good luck, a Chinese airline has confirmed.

The 80-year-old woman threw her change at the China Southern Airlines flight as she crossed the tarmac to board.

She told police she launched the coins as she "prayed for safety" on Tuesday.

Of the nine coins launched, only one hit its intended target - but this was enough to force the evacuation of 150 passengers for several hours.



Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40421811

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[paleotn]

1. ......

I'm speechless.

[whistler162]

2. Guess she didn't know

it only works while the plane is flying.

[pangaia]

3. Nope, it worked this time......no crash...

[3catwoman3]

4. Noe there's a plan...

...that is sure to fail.

[christx30]

5. It'd have been great if,

while looking for the coins, they had found stress fractures that would have destroyed the engine in mid flight. Then the coins would have done their job.
I feel bad for this old person. Did what she thought would have been helpful, but ended up causing trouble.

[RobinA]

19. This Was My First Thought

when I saw the picture of the workers crawling around the engine. I want all my planes examined with that amount of scrutiny.

[still_one]

6. Passengers on the tarmac are a hazzard, but that is how small airports in China

are serviced

[Gravitycollapse]

7. That's how many airports across the world, including in the US, are operated.

[lunasun]

12. Shanghai Pudong intl? The 5 th largest in Asia . Must have been a small local hopper

Those often board on the tarmac in the US, elsewhere.

[rsdsharp]

17. It may have changed since I was there in 1991

but the only place we saw a jet way was when we departed Peking. (We arrived in Peking at a military base after a flight from Xian on the day Gorbachev was deposed, and deplaned directly to the tarmac.)

We used the tarmac in commercial airports in Guangzhou, Guilin, Xian, and Shanghai. We always flew CAAC (China Air Always Cancels.) usually in 757s, but in one case in a Tupelev.

[lunasun]

18. 26 years ago ? You wouldn't recognize Shanghai now not just the airport And most people call Peking

now by Beijing since I don't know a long time ....the Olympics were held in ....Beijing .

[meadowlander]

22. They remodelled it in the early 2000s.

It's the ninth busiest airport in the world now.

[Gothmog]

8. Coins can kill a turbine

[MyNameIsKhan]

9. really I am hitting my head to wall

[Dream Girl]

10. Reminds me of the lady who "cleaned" that painting in Spain

Just trying to be helpful

[lunasun]

11. Her luck may change sitting around all those pissed off passengers she delayed

Shanghai is a very big airport . Perhaps is was a small local that boards off tarmac

[orangecrush]

13. I Ching coin toss?

[tclambert]

14. Silly woman. If you want luck, you need to throw a live goat into the engine.

This is actually how they make feta cheese.

[packman]

15. Love it - Old lady, modern tech, superstition, wonderful naive, innocence

a true no-brainer while at the same time "It's Grandmaw- what you gonna do?"

[dembotoz]

16. hate to be the insurance agent on that claim

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

20. Claim for what? Was there damage?

Was the engine running when she tossed the coins? If not, and the maintenance crew found all the coins, there should be no damage, unless she has a major league arm.

[dembotoz]

21. plane delayed lots of connectiong problems....oh yeah this cost money