Miss Macao

Miss Macao

Hijacking summary
Date	July 16, 1948[1]
Type	Hijacking resulting in crash
Site	Jiuzhou Yang (Pearl River Delta)
Passengers	23[2]
Crew	3[2][3]
Injuries	1
Fatalities	25
Survivors	1
Aircraft type	Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina
Tail number	VR-HDT

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.^[2] Piracy for robbery and ransom was the motive. ^[4][5]

The lone survivor, Huang Yu (Chinese: 黃裕, Hanyu Pinyin: Huáng Yù, Cantonese: Wong Yu), 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 June 11, 1951, and was then deported to China.^[1]

See also

	Hong Kong portal
	Republic of China portal
	Aviation portal

• List of sole survivors of aviation accidents or incidents

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Arthur Hacker. "'Cathay Pacific Airways PBY Catalina amphibious aircraft Miss Macao ashore at Kai Tak Airport.'". http://www.citylifehk.com/citylife/eng/history_0409.jsp. Retrieved 2010-05-15. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Eather, Charles (1983). Syd's Pirates - A Story of an Airline: Cathay Pacific Airways. Australia: Durnmount. ISBN 978-0949756053. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/361759. 
3. ^ "Catalina - Aviation's first act of armed piracy". 2002-08-01. http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/60421-pbys-5.html. Retrieved 2010-05-15. 
4. ^ "Flights of fancy Issue 10". 2008-11-01. http://www.macaubusiness.com/news/features/flights-of-fancy.html. Retrieved 2010-05-15. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "Pilots & Pirates". Time Inc. 1948-09-09. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794449,00.html. Retrieved 2010-05-15.  "Since piracy laws don't yet cover air piracy, he will probably be charged with simple murder."