Airlines and their passengers have it pretty rough these days, what with people being bloodied as they’re forcibly removed from an overbooked flight, or US Marshals being used to take newlyweds off half-full flights (or half-empty flights depending on your disposition) for sitting in the incorrect seats. Everyone is walking on eggshells. The airlines and the passengers. That’s why you can’t blame an elderly woman for throwing some change into her flight’s engine “to pray for safety.”
According to reports, the well-meaning but superstitious 80-year-old woman was boarding her flight on the tarmac when her fellow passengers witnessed her chucking a handful of loose coins directly into the engine. Her fellow passengers alerted the crew, the police detained her, and ground crew gathered to meticulously dig the coins out of the engine. All in all, eight out of nine coins missed, with one landing deep into the engine.
China Southern Flight 380 was delayed at Shanghai Pudong Int'l Airport on Tues after an elderly woman threw coins into the engine for luck.. pic.twitter.com/wSSWJg9bcE
— Flight (@flightorg) June 27, 2017
Finally, after what reports said were and absolutely granular search for any other coins, the plane took off five hours after its scheduled departure time and landed safely at its destination.
The story took off like wildfire on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, but the poor woman doesn’t deserve to be mocked, even with an 11.11% shot percentage.
(Via Mashable)