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Dad Arrested For Throwing Lucky Coins At Plane

Dad Arrested For Throwing Lucky Coins At Plane

Ground staff had to search the tarmac for the coins he had thrown, eventually finding them near the aircraft’s engine

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

A father has been videoed tossing a handful of coins into an aeroplane in China for good luck, only to be arrested for endangering the safety of passengers.

The footage shows the superstitious father - surnamed Xia - preparing to board Hainan Airlines Flight 7738 to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in north-western China.

Xia's wife can be seen carrying their newborn daughter, walking behind him as he completes his final passport check, about to step onto the plane.

However, Xia, 30, stops just before the cabin door - which is when he appears to throw three coins into the gap below, having spotted a gap in the jet bridge.

The passenger, surnamed Xia.
Asia Wire

The incident, which was captured by an air bridge CCTV camera, took place at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Central China's Hubei Province on 2 April.

Security officers at the airport had to halt boarding of the flight before detaining Xia, with the belief that his stunt could have endangered flight safety.

Ground staff had to search the tarmac for the coins Xia had thrown, eventually finding them near the aircraft's engine.

The coins Xia threw.
Asia Wire

Reports said the inspection ended up delaying the flight - and its 110 passengers - for 40 minutes.

Xia told officials it was the first time his baby daughter, who was four months old, was flying on a plane, and that his mother-in-law had advised he threw some coins at the craft as a means of good luck.

But the act proved to be less than lucky, as Xia was detained in Wuhan for 10 days.

His wife, meanwhile, had to continue to Urumqi with their daughter on her own.

Xia, his wife and his child.
Asia Wire

Xia isn't the first person to throw coins at an aeroplane - and subsequently hold up a flight - recently.

Last month, two passengers were removed from a flight and detained by police after throwing coins into a plane in east China for good luck and a safe flight, in turn delaying flight 8L9616 from Jinan, Shandong province to Chengdu, Sichuan, for two hours.

This also affected a total of 260 passengers on board - who I can imagine were none too impressed.

Then just before that, a Chinese man was being sued by Lucky Air for lobbing two coins at a plane when he was travelling with his wife and one-year-old child.

Flight 8L9960 from Anqing, Anhui province to Kunming, Yunnan was grounded for security reasons and eventually cancelled, affecting 162 passengers - and costing the airline nearly 140,000 yuan (£15,800/$20,900).

Basically, don't throw coins in planes, kids. It's a bad idea.

Featured Image Credit: Asia Wire

Topics: World News, News, travel, Aeroplane, China