HONG KONG vessels have fallen victim to Chinese pirates since the turn of the century, but the 'honour' of being the victim of the world's first air hijack belongs to a Cathay Pacific plane on a flight from Hong Kong to Macau in 1948.
The Catalina flying boat Miss Macau was making a routine flight on July 16 with 26 passengers and crew when four hijackers demanded the plane be taken to a remote area. The hijackers had heard tempting reports of cargoes of gold bullion and planned to hold up the Catalina and divert it to another location where it could be looted.
But the attack was thwarted when one of the hijackers shot the pilot, whose body slumped across the controls pushing the aircraft forward and causing it to dive into the sea.
There was only one survivor, hijacker Wong Yu, who told police he and his conspirators had taken the trouble to learn to fly Catalinas in Manila and had studied the flight paths of the Cathay aircraft as they flew back and forth between Hong Kong and Macau.
Wong Yu was never tried for murder or piracy because the British considered his evidence was inadmissible in a Hong Kong court and the Macau authorities had no jurisdiction over hijackings on a British plane.
One of the first recorded hijackings of a ship on the Hong Kong-Macau route involved a Yau Ma Tei ferry in 1900. It was taken in Victoria Harbour by a group of mainlanders who demanded the captain sail to the Pearl River.
'This is probably the first recorded incident and it involved the Cheong Yuen,' said local historian Arthur Hacker.