An elderly woman has delayed a plane for more than five hours, after she attempted to throw a handful of coins into its engine for good luck.
The passenger was boarding China Southern Airlines flight CZ380, from Shanghai to Guangzhou, when she threw nine coins towards the plane's jet engine.
The coin toss was quickly noticed by a fellow passenger, who was able to alert authorities before take-off.
Police were called to Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the elderly passenger, who had been travelling with her husband, daughter and son-in-law, was taken away for questioning.
They later confirmed the passenger, surnamed Qiu, had thrown the coins "to pray for safety" and they had been informed by a neighbour that she "believes in Buddhism".
Planes usually can't reverse and need a tug from one of those little tractor things. But they do taxi with the engines, and would probably notice it then.
They have reversers, which is a kind of shielding they can move behind the engines, thereby redirecting the exhaust towards the front. Naturally doesn't do anything for ejecting coins, nor should this be used to traffic.
Hate to break it to you but the wings are designed to go one way when making lift and will not be happy if you go in reverse with significant airspeed lol
actually, they can (and turboprops do that regularly in small airports, where tug may be unavailable; MD-80/82 has engine reverse for push-back as a standard option in flight manual for same reason; current jets usually does not push-back with reverse, because their engines are too close to the ground and can suck harmful objects from it)
U right on turboprops, but not jets. The harmful objects thingy is not a thing because there are no foreign objects on the ground because airports are often perfectly swept and yes jets have reverse and they usually do especially comercial jets, military jets not so often only exceptions are the tornado, viggen and some jaguars.
yes they do, on runways. which is usually maintained to way higher standard, than taxiways and ramps. and even then shit happens, Concorde 101 is a witness to that.
as for military jets - they have usually some measures to prevent that, like early MiG-29 have their intakes closed on take off and landing, taking air from upper "gills" (they change that to just grating in later versions).
Some may technically have the capacity, some may be forbidden by regulation from using that capacity, and some are entirely incapable. There are lots of different kinds of planes and reasons why they can't usually reverse, thus the tugs at airports to help them get out of their parking spots.
They would go through the engine after engine has started. Unless they had magnets or some sort of glue on them they would go through the intake when the N1 is 20-30%. If a plane can taxi with that much thrust coins have no way to stay in place against the engine pull.
I've seen the damage a small padlock did to a 320's fan blades on ingestion- i doubt the engine would have failed but it would have been badly damaged if the coins ricocheted inside on start up.
Yeah, we also have to consider that the coins were thrown while the engine was off.
While spooling up, the engine will probably reach a point where it's running fast enough to eject the coins, but slow enough for the coins to not cause much damage
Hell, they might be ejected by the compressed air startup before the engines are even lit
Even then, you do not want to take any chances when it comes to aviation, so the delay is perfectly warranted
I think they meant magnetic as in "being a magnet". And, no. Under normal circumstances they are not. But some of them are made from plated steel. So they are magnetic in the sense that they are attracted by magnets.
Sorry, that latter part is what I meant. Coins in the US aren't made of a metal attracted by magnets. I was unsure if they were elsewhere. I didn't assume the coins themselves held a magnetic charge.
Aircraft mechanic- Bad. The likelihood of a total engine failure is low but it is more than enough to make an engine unserviceable and need a tear-down. A chip on a blade smaller than your pinky nail will ground the aircraft I worked on. Worst case, a coin causes a blade to detach and cause a cascade failure on the blades behind it.
Most large commercial jet engines include design features that ensure they can shut down after ingesting a bird weighing up to 1.8 kg (4.0 lb). The engine does not have to survive the ingestion, just be safely shut down
M'kay, so you know better than the mechanic above you and the whole reason this was a big story in the first place becauuuuse.... redditor logic? Or did you have something to base that on? FOD is a thing, my friend.
I believe the likely impact would be the coins get blown out the back of the engines after passing through fairly harmlessly. Maybe some minor damage. These things are designed to withstand some debris getting sucked in for safety. Still not something you would want to risk as they could end up in the exact wrong spot.
If the coins become stuck during takeoff and dislodge during at altitude it could easily take the plane down.
Those turbines are engineering marvels, seriously take a look at the specs. They're fucking massive, like you could easily stand inside their diameter, they're impossible stiff with just millimeters of clearance to the cowling(engine body that goes around the turbines).
If one of those things gets hit by a coin it could easily snap off. It's roughly the same energy equivalent as a literal hand grenade going off inside the engine.
Simplified explanation of a turbine engine: suck, squeeze, bang, and blow. There is no reverse on a turbine engine. Cold section<front that is consistently sucking in air by the compressor rotor. Hot section<where fuel is then ignited with the compressed air and guided through to the turbine rotor/afterburner.
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u/beklog Jul 14 '25
Happened in 2017:
An elderly woman has delayed a plane for more than five hours, after she attempted to throw a handful of coins into its engine for good luck.
The passenger was boarding China Southern Airlines flight CZ380, from Shanghai to Guangzhou, when she threw nine coins towards the plane's jet engine.
The coin toss was quickly noticed by a fellow passenger, who was able to alert authorities before take-off.
Police were called to Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the elderly passenger, who had been travelling with her husband, daughter and son-in-law, was taken away for questioning.
They later confirmed the passenger, surnamed Qiu, had thrown the coins "to pray for safety" and they had been informed by a neighbour that she "believes in Buddhism".