Miss Macao
Hong Kong commercial seaplane; hijacked by pirates in 1948
 A Consolidated PBY Catalina similar to the accident aircraft | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | 16 July 1948[1] |
| Summary | Hijacking resulting in crash, robbery |
| Site | Jiuzhou Yang (Pearl River Delta) just northeast of Green Island, Xiangzhou, Zhuhai |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina |
| Operator | Macau Air Transport Company (Cathay Pacific subsidiary) |
| Registration | VR-HDT |
| Flight origin | Macau |
| Destination | Hong Kong |
| Passengers | 23[2] |
| Crew | 3[2][3] |
| Fatalities | 25 |
| Injuries | 1 |
| Survivors | 1 (lead hijacker) |
| Miss Macao | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 澳門小姐 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 澳门小姐 | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Miss Macao (Chinese: 澳門小姐; Sidney Lau: O3 Moon4 Siu2 Je2) was a Catalina seaplane owned by Cathay Pacific and operated by subsidiary Macau Air Transport Company. On 16 July 1948 it was involved in the first hijacking of a commercial aircraft.[2] Piracy for robbery and ransom was the motive.[4][5] The aircraft crashed after the pilot was shot while resisting the attackers, leaving one of the hijackers as the sole survivor of the incident.
The lone survivor, Wong Yu (黃裕; 黄裕; Wong4 Yue6; Huáng Yù), confessed to membership of the gang of four pirates who attempted the hijacking (then simply labelled "piracy"). The hijackers met with fierce resistance during which the pilot was shot, causing the aircraft to crash, but Wong Yu survived by jumping out the emergency exit just before the plane hit the water. The object of the plot was to rob wealthy passengers and hold them for ransom.[6] He was brought to court by the Macau police, but the Macau court suggested that the prosecution should be brought in Hong Kong instead, since the plane was registered in Hong Kong and most of the passengers were from there. However, the British colonial government in Hong Kong stated that the incident happened over Chinese territory in which the British had no jurisdiction. Since no state claimed authority to try him, Wong was released without trial from Macao Central Prison on 11 June 1951, and was then deported to China (by then the People's Republic of China).[1]
See also
Hong Kong portal
China portal
Aviation portal
- 1933 Imperial Airways Diksmuide crash, the first act of in-flight airline sabotage
- List of sole survivors of airline accidents or incidents
References
- ^ a b Footer, Mark (20 July 2008). "Flight of no return: How a Cathay Pacific plane became the first hijacked commercial airliner". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
- ^ a b c Eather, Charles (1983). Syd's Pirates – A Story of an Airline: Cathay Pacific Airways. Australia: Durnmount. ISBN 978-0-949756-05-3.
- ^ "Catalina – Aviation's first act of armed piracy". 1 August 2002. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
- ^ "Flights of fancy Issue 10". 1 November 2008. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
- ^ "Pilots & Pirates". Time. 9 September 1948. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15 May 2010. "Since piracy laws don't yet cover air piracy, he will probably be charged with simple murder."
- ^ "On This Day: First Commercial Flight Hijacked". 16 July 2010. Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- v
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Aviation accidents and incidents in China
- 1922 Beijing-Han Airlines crash (March 1922)
- 1931 Jinan air crash (November 1931)
- Kweilin Incident (August 1938)
- Chungking Incident (October 1940)
- 1945 Peip'ing C-46 crash (October 1945)
- 1946 United States Air Force C-47 Crash at Yan'an (April 1946)
- Miss Macao (July 1948)
- Cathay Pacific Douglas DC-4 shootdown (July 1954)
- Lin Biao incident (September 1971)
- CAAC Flight 3303 (April 1982)
- CAAC Flight 2311 (December 1982)
- CAAC Flight 296 (May 1983)
- Guilin Airport collision (September 1983)
- Aeroflot Flight 101/435 (December 1985)
- China Airlines Flight 334 (May 1986)
- China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 (January 1988)
- China Eastern Airlines Flight 5510 (August 1989)
- Guangzhou Baiyun airport collisions (October 1990)
- China General Aviation Flight 7552 (July 1992)
- China Southern Airlines Flight 3943 (November 1992)
- China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119 (July 1993)
- China Eastern Airlines Flight 5398 (October 1993)
- China Northern Airlines Flight 6901 (November 1993)
- China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 (June 1994)
- China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 (May 1997)
- China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509 (February 1999)
- Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316 (April 1999)
- Wuhan Airlines Flight 343 (June 2000)
- Hainan Island incident (April 2001)
- China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 (May 2002)
- China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210 (November 2004)
- PLAAF KJ-200 crash (June 2006)
- Avient Aviation Flight 324 (November 2009)
- Henan Airlines Flight 8387 (August 2010)
- Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554 (June 2012)
- Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633 (May 2018)
- China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 (March 2022)
- Tibet Airlines Flight 9833 (May 2022)
Accidents and incidents in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are not included.
22°10′55″N 113°44′38″E / 22.182°N 113.744°E / 22.182; 113.744
