Aviation
Commercial /
China
Canceled flight
Aircraft is forced to suspend its flight because of coins thrown into the engine
Foram encontradas moedas no motor - imagem ilustrativa
Andriyko Podilnyk/ Unsplash
Rafael Ramos
4/29/2021
In April 2021 a flight by Beibu Gulf Airlines, which was scheduled to travel with 148 passengers between two cities in China, had to be suspended due to coins that were found lying on the runway.
The employees who found the coins on the runway soon warned the crew of the object, who, moments before takeoff, interrupted the process. Coins were also found inside the plane's engine.
Ken Yam/Unsplah
The objects thrown on the engine could damage it, causing disruption to the flight if it were operated under the conditions.
The entry of foreign objects into aircraft engines the reaction has the power to cause damage proportional to the quantity, size and mass ("weight") of these objects. In the mildest cases, the damage will go unnoticed until detected in scheduled maintenance inspections carried out at regular intervals.
And in the most severe cases, it can cause damage immediately perceptible by the crew, which implies strange noises, abnormal vibrations, and abnormal operating parameters, especially high temperatures of the engine exhaust gases, parameters that are continuously monitored by the on-board systems and the pilots.
It is not ruled out that the ingestion of foreign objects has gone to the extreme of threatening flight safety, but this, however, is very unlikely, since (1) airplanes can perfectly fly with one or more of their engines stopped and (2 ) the extent of damage is normally contained within the engine and does not extend to the rest of the aircraft, maintaining safety.
The possible exceptions to this safety are the shutdown of several or all of the aircraft's engines, as happened with US Airways flight 1549 in January 2009 and portrayed in the film "Sully - the Hudson River hero", after the collision with a large bunch of migratory steps that caused the stoppage of the two engines of an Airbus A-320, or the occurrence of the so-called "uncontrolled" failures, where the parts of the engines that break down or disintegrate are projected out of the engine and can reach the body aircraft and cause more threatening damage. This possibility is very remote, however, since the motors are shielded "unlike" the normal shields, that is, these shields serve to prevent internal parts of the motors from leaving their containment zone.
Also with regard to the flight from China, as it was interrupted, all passengers were able to reschedule their trip, except the owner of the objects, a citizen named Wang, who admitted to having thrown the money before boarding and was arrested by the police.
Such cases have happened in the Asian country before. In 2019, there were 3 similar cases. On occasions, the citizens responsible for tossing the coins believed it would bring luck.
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Rafael Ramos
Aviation enthusiast from an early age, he had his first contacts with the area developing that good old habit of spending dozens of hours in front of the screens of Micrsoft Flight Simulator and other simulators. With a solid background in various technological areas, including engineering and chemistry, Rafael has rejoined aviation as editor and author of articles and materials on our portal, providing invaluable help to the dynamics and expansion of the website and the aeronautical community, bringing us the news and updates so indispensable for us to remain current in our area of operation.
   
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