Passenger tosses coins in jet engine "for luck," causes 5-hour flight delay

(RNN) - An 80-year-old passenger on a flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou threw coins into the aircraft’s engine for good luck and as a prayer for safety.

The prayer was apparently answered, because luckily, other passengers saw what she was doing and notified the crew, the South China Morning Post reported.

The coins could have been sucked into the engine and caused great damage, even catastrophic failure, said the captain of the China Southern Airlines flight.

The plane sat on the tarmac for five hours at Shanghai Pudong International Airport while mechanics found nine coins in one engine.

The elderly passenger was taken into police custody, the airline said in a statement. The police later stated after investigation that the passenger was Buddhist and threw the coins to pray for safety.

Airport employees said she appeared to be about 80, and she had “limited mobility and was accompanied by her husband, daughter and son-in-law,” The Straits Times reported.

She tossed the coins from the middle of the boarding stairway.

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