US EditionThe 20-Minute Flight that Became the World’s First Airplane Hijacking
HONG KONG, JUL 15 – The hijackers aimed to redirect the seaplane to Guangdong to rob passengers and demand ransom, marking the start of aviation security changes that followed, experts say.
- On July 16, 1948, the Miss Macao seaplane was hijacked and crashed while flying between the Portuguese-administered territory of Macao and British-administered Hong Kong.
- The hijacking occurred because Wong Yu and three accomplices intended to rob passengers after redirecting the plane to Guangdong province in southern China.
- The plane carried 27 people including two former military pilots and a flight attendant, and Wong was the sole survivor with a broken leg who was rescued and hospitalized in Macao.
- Contemporary press described the event as 'air piracy,' marking the first use of the term 'hijacking' for an airplane and it was called 'unparalleled in the history of aviation' by the China Mail.
- This first hijacking foreshadowed the growing threat of skyjacking until the golden age of hijacking from 1968 to 1972 forced airports to become heavily secured by government and airlines.
10 Articles
10 Articles
The 20-minute flight that became the world’s first airplane hijacking | News Channel 3-12
By Lilit Marcus, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — These days, travel between the harbor cities of Hong Kong and Macao takes an hour by high-speed ferry. But from 1948 to 1961, when the two were still colonies of European powers, wealthy tourists could opt for a brief trip by air. Miss Macao was not a beauty queen. She was a Consolidated Model 28 Catalina seaplane that whisked travelers from Portuguese-controlled Macao to British-controlled Hong Kong, a 20-…
The 20-minute flight that became the world’s first airplane hijacking
By Lilit Marcus, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — These days, travel between the harbor cities of Hong Kong and Macao takes an hour by high-speed ferry. But from 1948 to 1961, when the two were still colonies of European powers, wealthy tourists could opt for a brief trip by air. Miss Macao was not a beauty queen. She was a Consolidated Model 28 Catalina seaplane that whisked travelers from Portuguese-controlled Macao to British-controlled Hong Kong, a 20-…
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