---
title: "Passenger Arrested, Sued After Tossing Coins in Jet Engine for Good Luck While Boarding"
description: "A 28-year-old man in China is in a heap of trouble after tossing two coins at a plane's running jet engine for good luck during boarding."
date: "2019-02-26"
modified: "2019-02-26"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/26641/passenger-arrested-sued-after-tossing-coins-in-jet-engine-for-good-luck-while-boarding"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Aviation"
---

# Passenger Arrested, Sued After Tossing Coins in Jet Engine for Good Luck While Boarding

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2019/02/Lucky-Air-Plane-Engine-Coin.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

A 28-year-old man is facing fines, a lawsuit, and the free-floating wrath of delayed air travelers everywhere after he caused a flight in China to be grounded by tossing a few coins into the plane's idling turbofan engines for good luck while boarding, [*China Daily* reports.](<https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201902/25/WS5c7343e5a3106c65c34eb217.html>)

The erstwhile flyer, identified only as Lu, was boarding low-cost carrier Lucky Air Flight 8L 9960 on the tarmac at Anqing Tianzhushan Airport when he threw at least two one-yuan coins at the left engine of the [Airbus](<https://www.twz.com/26635/heres-what-it-looked-like-inside-the-airbus-that-was-wing-rocking-violently-over-gibraltar>) A320neo. The coins were soon spotted by workers on the ground; [this is apparently enough of a thing in China](<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/27/chinese-passenger-throws-coins-plane-engine-luck/>) that airline staff knew to ask passengers if anyone was responsible. Lu raised his hand, later admitting his now-ironic intentions to investigators.

Out of an abundance of caution, Lucky Air decided to cancel the flight and fully inspect the CFM International LEAP engine to ensure no other coins were ingested. All 161 passengers were delayed until the following day. Meanwhile, the airline estimates the episode cost them at least $20,000 in maintenance and other costs. On Monday, it announced it would be suing Lu for damages.

![message-editor%2F1551168868748-b-1361-lucky-air-airbus-a320-251n\_planespottersnet\_917719\_e13b5a84ff.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content-b/message-editor/1551168868748-b-1361-lucky-air-airbus-a320-251n_planespottersnet_917719_e13b5a84ff.jpg>)
**Planespotters.net | YanShuai**

You don't need to know how a [modern turbofan engine](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/26169/delta-airlines-answers-the-big-question-do-planes-have-in-flight-fart-filtering-technology>) works to understand that a metal coin bouncing around in a high-speed turbine is bad for both sides. It's true that these powerplants [are designed to ingest everything from hailstorms to birds](<https://www.twz.com/5892/this-bird-strike-reminds-us-it-doesnt-take-a-missile-to-down-a-fighter>) without flinching, and that the LEAP's high-bypass design makes it less likely that a coin could get deflected into the engine core. If everything works as intended, the most likely scenario is a nick or a crack in one of the blades in the front fan hub.

That's not great, and certainly demands attention, but it wouldn't cause the plane to crash, even if the damaged blade failed and detached mid-flight. That's within the tolerance of these engines. But if the coin somehow ended up inside the high-pressure spool at the core of the turbofan—again, a very unlikely scenario—it could wreak havoc and unleash a torrent of failures leading to the engine's destruction. That's also not necessarily enough to take out a flight, but would you want to take that chance at 35,000 feet?

Incredible as the thought of someone flipping a coin into a Lucky Air jet engine for good luck may be, the final twist is that the exact same thing has happened once before at the exact same airport to the exact same flight. [Last May,](<https://shanghaiist.com/2017/10/20/granny-throws-coin-in-plane-engine/>) a 76-year-old woman was briefly detained for tossing coins at the engines of Flight 8L 9960 in Anqing, though the airline decided not to press charges given her age.

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)