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A traveler threw coins into an airplane turbine on the southern Chinese holiday island of Hainan, delaying the plane’s takeoff for several hours. The passenger was taken away by airport police, affected airline Southern China Airlines confirmed to Chinese state radio. The plane was actually scheduled to fly from Sanya to Beijing on Wednesday morning (local time). According to Chinese media reports, the passenger’s toss caused a delay of almost four hours as the plane’s turbine had to be examined.

In recent years, air travelers in China have repeatedly thrown coins into the turbines of planes. During the superstitious ritual, the engine probably functions as a kind of wishing well with which the passengers wish for a safe journey. However, flight and ground crews then had to carry out a laborious inspection of the turbines, which led to major delays. In February 2019, a man was placed in disciplinary detention for 10 days after his coin toss into an engine caused the cancellation of a domestic flight from Anqing to Kunming. According to media reports, he was later ordered to pay 120,000 yuan (about 15,000 francs today) to the airlines involved.

Chinese airlines now show videos on flights about the misconduct of travelers in recent years and the punishments they received for it. China Southern Airlines released a video on the online platform Weibo following the incident in Hainan. In it, the airline drew attention to the dangers of ‘uncivilized behavior’ such as throwing coins into turbines for flight safety and the consequences such as cancellation. (rbu/sda/dpa)