Woman detained for throwing lucky coins at plane

It should be pretty obvious why tossing coins at planes isn't lucky, but here we all are. Photo / Getty

Missing crew, technical problems, there are so many factors in air travel to dent your chances of departing on time - but you might not have come across this one.

A 66-year-old female passenger has been detained by police in China for throwing six coins at a plane for good luck before take-off.

According to a statement from the airline, the woman was removed from the Tianjin Airlines flight at Hohhot Baita International Airport in Inner Mongolia after admitting to the dangerous act.

As a result, all 100 passengers on flight GS6681 departing for Chifeng city were delayed two hours before being reassigned to another aircraft.

Airline staff were sent to search for the change and six 1 jiao coins were located near the aircraft on the tarmac, a spokesperson told MailOnline.

The woman, identified by her surname Yang, has been detained by police for 10 days and could face further punishment from airline authorities, according to state-broadcaster CCTV.

She told police that she had thrown the coins to pray for a safe flight.

If a coin was sucked into the engine of an aircraft could be destroyed, according to a Civil Aviation professor cited in a recent Chinese report.

Domestic flights in China are notorious for delays with an estimated one-third of all flights being late. Coin throwing is just the another reason for flight delays — and has happened at least five times this year.