Engineering:Miss Macao
| File:Macau Air Transport Company Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina VR-HDT.jpg VR-HDT, the aircraft involved. Seen in 1940 | |
| 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) |
| 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 |
|---|
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; 25 people died, including three hijackers, but one hijacker survived by jumping out of the airplane before impact.
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, in which the copilot, the captain and some of the passengers fought back, wounding many of the hijackers, during which the captain was shot, causing the aircraft to nosedive into the sea, but Wong Yu survived by jumping out the emergency exit just before the plane hit the water. The objective 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.[1]
Wong Yu, 27 years old, died a short time after his deportation.[7] Mark Footer of the South China Morning Post wrote that "rumour had it" that Wong Yu was killed by officials in China, as they wanted to act against people who had committed aviation hijackings, and that the death was made to appear accidental.[1] A male businessperson from China told Roy Farrell, a co-founder of Cathay Pacific, that Wong Yu died due to the effects of a typhoon near the prison, just after his release; Gavin Young, author of Beyond Lion Rock: The Story of Cathay Pacific Airways, described the businessperson as "well-informed".[8]: 78–79
Occupants
The nationalities of pilot Dale Cramer, first officer Ken McDuff, and flight attendant Delca da Costa were American, Australian, and Portuguese, respectively. The flight attendant originated from Macau, and she and McDuff were in a romantic relationship.[7]
See also
- 1933 Imperial Airways Diksmuide crash, the first act of in-flight airline sabotage
- List of aviation accidents and incidents with a sole survivor
References
- Young, Gavin (1990). "Chapter 8". Beyond Lion Rock: The Story of Cathay Pacific Airways. London: Penguin Group. pp. 73-81. ISBN 9780571287260. https://archive.org/details/beyondlionrockst0000youn.
Notes
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Eather, Charles (1983). Syd's Pirates – A Story of an Airline: Cathay Pacific Airways. Australia: Durnmount. ISBN 978-0-949756-05-3. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/361759.
- ↑ "Catalina – Aviation's first act of armed piracy". 1 August 2002. http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/60421-pbys-5.html. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
- ↑ "Flights of fancy Issue 10". 1 November 2008. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140808100535/http://www.macaubusiness.com/news/features/flights-of-fancy.html. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
- ↑ "Pilots & Pirates". Time. 9 September 1948. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794449,00.html. 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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120103075904/http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day--The-First-Commercial-Flight-is-Hijacked.html. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Marcus, Lilit (14 July 2025). "The 20-minute flight that became the world's first airplane hijacking". Cable News Network. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/miss-macao-worlds-first-airplane-hijacking. Retrieved 2026-08-29.
- ↑ Young.
Further reading
- Wood, Chris (2019-07-19). "When a Cathay Pacific plane became victim of world’s first hijacking of a commercial flight". PostMag. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3019152/when-cathay-pacific-plane-became-victim-worlds.
- "Unlawful Interference Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina VR-HDT, Friday 16 July 1948". Aviation Safety Network. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/336660.
Template:Aviation accidents and incidents in China Template:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1948 Template:Cathay Pacific [ ⚑ ] 22°10′55″N 113°44′38″E / 22.182°N 113.744°E
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