Macau – Hong Kong

On July 17, 1948 at 06:00 PM, Macau – Hong Kong experienced a crash involving Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina, operated by Cathay Pacific Airways, with the event recorded near Macau Macau.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

26 people were known to be on board, 25 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 96.2%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 23, passenger fatalities: 22, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is terrorism act, hijacking, sabotage. Shortly after takeoff from Macau, a hijacker came into the cockpit and killed the captain with a gun. The copilot lost control of the aircraft christened 'Miss Macau' that crashed into the Zhujiang River Estuary, between Macau and Hong Kong. A passenger was seriously injured while all 25 other occupants were killed. This event was considered as the first official hijacking of a commercial aircraft in the Civil Aviation History. It was later reported that lone survivor, Huang Yu, was the admitted leader of the hijacking plot. He 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.

Aircraft reference details include registration VR-HDT.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 22.1899°, 113.5380°.