Miss Macao

For the beauty pageant title, see Miss Macau.

Miss Macao

Hijacking summary
Date	16 July 1948
Summary	Hijacking resulting in crash, robbery
Site	Jiuzhou Yang (Pearl River Delta)
Passengers	23
Crew	3
Injuries (non-fatal)	1
Fatalities	25
Survivors	1 (lead hijacker)
Aircraft type	Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina
Operator	Macau Air Transport Company (Cathay Pacific subsidiary)
Registration	VR-HDT
Flight origin	Macau
Destination	Hong Kong

Miss Macao was a Catalina seaplane owned by Cathay Pacific and operated by a subsidiary. On 16 July 1948 she became the victim of the first hijacking of a commercial aircraft. Piracy for robbery and ransom was the motive.

The lone survivor, Huang Yu (Chinese: 黃裕; pinyin: Huáng Yù; Wade–Giles: Wong Yu), was the admitted leader of the hijacking plot, and survived by jumping out the emergency exit just before the crash. 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 have no jurisdiction. Since no state claimed authority to try him, Huang was released without trial from Macau prison on 11 June 1951, and was then deported to China (by then the People's Republic of China).

See also

• List of sole survivors of aviation accidents or incidents
• 1933 Imperial Airways Diksmuide crash, the first act of in-flight airline sabotage

References

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