Miss Macao
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | July 16, 1948 |
| Type | Hijacking resulting in crash |
| Site | Jiuzhou Yang (Pearl River Delta) |
| Passengers | 23 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Injuries | 1 |
| Fatalities | 26 |
| Survivors | 1 |
| Aircraft type | Catalina seaplane |
| 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 hjiacking of a commercial aircraft.
The Miss Macao was on a routine flight from Macau to Hong Kong. She was hijacked a few minutes after take off by four men carrying guns, one of who demanded that the co-pilot surrender the controls. The co-pilot refused and was shot. The pilot, Dale Warren Cramer, who had been up in the dome of the PBY, jumped down to see what was going on and was shot five times in the back by a Chinese man with a machine gun. He then collapsed onto the flight controls. The plane went into an uncontrolled dive and crashed into the sea. 26 of the 27 people aboard died in the crash, the only survivor being the leader of the hijackers (as recalled by the brother of pilot). The motives of the hijackers are not known for sure. They may have been Chinese bandits, with an economic rather than political motive (they may have been after gold being shipped from China to Hong Kong).
The lone survivor, Huang Yu (黃裕 Huáng Yù), 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 Hong Kong. However, the British colonial government in Hong Kong stated that the incident happened over Chinese territory in which the British have no jurisdiction. In the end, Huang was acquitted.
