World's First "Air Piracy" Was A 20 Minutes "Cigarette Flight" En Route Macau

There were no metal detectors or scanners at the airport in 1948. It was a short flight between Portuguese-controlled Macau and British-controlled Hong Kong. Twenty minutes was all it took.

And one such routine journey turned into a nightmare when a Cathay Pacific-operated seaplane, Miss Macau, became the world's first recorded airplane hijacking. In fact, the idea of hijacking didn't even exist at the time. People would call it "air piracy."

With no proper airport or runway, planes would take off from Macau's coastal waters for what were then referred to as "cigarette flights" for their duration.

According to CNN, shortly after the flight took off with 24 passengers, two pilots and one flight attendant, four armed men hijacked the aircraft over the Pearl River Delta in an attempt to loot the passengers. The plane was captained by American pilot Dale Cramer and Australian first officer Ken McDuff.

Macau was the only place in the Far East where gold trading was permitted. Hence, wealthy individuals would routinely travel between Macau and Hong Kong, carrying gold and cash. This route became a popular target for robbers.

The hijackers planned to seize control of the aircraft and rob the passengers. So, one of the hijackers went into the cockpit and demanded controls, which the Captain refused to hand over. A struggle broke out between a passenger and one of the hijackers, who pulled out his gun.

When the hijackers shot both pilots, the captain's body slumped forward onto the joystick control, causing the aircraft to nose-dive. Within moments, Miss Macao plunged into the South China Sea, killing 25 of the 26 people onboard. The only survivor was a hijacker, a 24-year-old Chinese rice farmer named Wong Yu, rescued by a fisherman and taken to the hospital.

Historian Luis Andrade de Sa, in his book "Aviation in Macau: One Hundred Years of Adventure," explained that the lead hijacker, Chiu Tok, had taken flying lessons in Manila. His plan was to fly the plane himself once the pilots handed him controls, reported Simple Flying.

At the time, there were no metal detectors, and bags were only lightly checked without proper investigation. So, the hijackers tied their guns to their legs using black string. One of them even hid bullets in the hollow sole of his shoe, according to the South China Morning Post.

The question of who should prosecute Wong after his capture remained ambiguous because Macao's Portuguese officials claimed that since the plane belonged to a British corporation, the case should be heard in Hong Kong. But because all of the hijackers were Chinese, British officials in Hong Kong refused to take up the case.

Wong was ultimately returned to mainland China in 1951. He was never put on trial for robbery, murder, or air piracy, and died at the age of 27.