In yet another incident, a Chinese passenger was detained after tossing coins the aircraft operating China Southern flight 8427 from Nanning to Bangkok. She is reportedly a first-time flier and the coin-toss ritual was for good luck, which has been the same story in each of these incidents. The incident was captured on CCTV.
After a delay of 78 minutes, during which all the coins were all found and removed, the flight finally took off for Bangkok.
Toss coins in fountains, not flying machines
This is not the first coin-toss incident. There have been at least six this year. The “tradition” started with the first incident in 2017 when an elderly woman tossed a handful of coins at a China Southern aircraft in Shanghai. Chinese Airlines Lucky Air has had three flights delayed or canceled for coin toss incidents in the past couple years. I guess having lucky in the name isn’t enough for some folks.
You don’t really need “good luck” when flying. I get that there are nervous (and superstitious) fliers. But traveling by commercial jet remains one of the safest modes of travel, the recent high-profile incidents notwithstanding.
China is pretty serious about punishing this behavior, and multiple travelers have been detained by police, sometimes for upwards of a week. One man was sued by Shenzen Airlines after he tossed coins into an aircraft, to the tune of 70,000 yuan (~$10,000). The economic loss to the airline due to the aircraft being delayed is definitely real.
Don’t toss coins at planes. Save them for the Trevi Fountain next time you are in Rome.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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