An 80-year-old passenger was exempt from punishment, partly due to her age, after she tossed a handful of coins toward the engine of an aircraft on Tuesday.

The woman, surnamed Qiu, threw nine coins to pray for a safe journey when she was boarding the China Southern Airlines plane at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Maintenance personnel launched an immediate overhaul of the aircraft and found one coin in the engine, which could have led to its malfunction. The aircraft departed late on Tuesday evening from Shanghai to Guangzhou, five hours behind schedule.