Flight delayed after 2 women toss coins for good luck

A Lucky Air flight in east China's Shandong Province was delayed after two women were found flipping coins at the plane for "good fortune," Qilu Evening News reported on Tuesday.

Flight 8L9616 was scheduled to take off from Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport to Chengdu, Sichuan Province at 8pm on March 10, but it was delayed for two hours after two female passengers were found throwing coins off the air bridge when boarding the flight.

They later admitted that they each tossed a one yuan coin for good luck, which security staff soon found under the bridge.

After observation, the captain ruled out the possibility that any coins had been flipped into the engine as the narrow gap between the bridge and the plane was far from the engine.

The flight, with 260 passengers on board, finally departed at 10:02pm.

The two female passengers were taken into custody and investigation is still underway.

A similar case was reported last month, when a 28-year-old man tossed coins at a jetliner's engine in Anqing, Anhui Province, to wish for a safe flight. He was punished with administrative detention.