''Miss Macao'' () was a
Catalina
Catalina may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''The Catalina'', a 2012 American reality television show
* ''Catalina'' (novel), a 1948 novel by W. Somerset Maugham
* Catalina (''My Name Is Earl''), character from the NBC sitcom ''My Name Is Earl''
...
seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
owned by
Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have sc ...
and operated by subsidiary
Macau Air Transport Company. On 16 July 1948 it was involved in the first
hijacking
Hijacking may refer to:
Common usage
Computing and technology
* Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth
* Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand
* Browser hijacking
* Clickjacking (including ''like ...
of a commercial aircraft.
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
for robbery and
ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or the sum of money involved in such a practice.
When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French ''rançon'' from Latin ''red ...
was the motive. 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 (), 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.
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).
See also
*
1933 Imperial Airways Diksmuide crash
On 28 March 1933, an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy II passenger aircraft, named ''City of Liverpool'' and operated by British airline Imperial Airways, crashed near Diksmuide, Belgium, after suffering an onboard fire; all fifteen people aboard w ...
, the first act of in-flight airline sabotage
*
List of sole survivors of airline accidents or incidents
This list includes sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents that involved 10 or more onboard. Within this list, "sole survivor" refers to a person who survived an air accident in which all other aircraft occupants died as a direct conseq ...
References
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History of Macau
Aircraft hijackings in China
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by hijacking
Aviation accidents and incidents in China
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1948
Accidents and incidents involving the Consolidated PBY Catalina
Mass murder in 1948
1948 in China
History of Guangdong
Individual aircraft
July 1948 events in Asia