The 20-minute flight: First aircraft slope in the world

The 20-minute flight: First aircraft slope in the world

Nowadays, the trip with the high -speed ferry between the port cities of Hong Kong and Macao takes about an hour. But from 1948 to 1961, when both regions were still colonies of European powers, wealthy tourists were also able to choose a short flight by plane.

The Miss Macao - a historical aircraft

Miss Macoo was not a beauty queen, but a consolidated model 28 Catalina Waublante, which traveler promoted from the Portuguese -controlled Macao to the British controlled Hong Kong - a route that could be covered in just 20 minutes. These flights were referred to as "cigar flights" because the duration corresponded to the time that was needed to smoke a cigarette - and it was allowed to smoke on board.

Air traffic between Hong Kong and Macao

Back then, flying was "like going by bus," says Dan Porat, history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Passengers who could afford it bought their tickets directly while getting in without a previous booking. The Macau Air Transport Company, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific "Flug boats". Due to the lack of airports in Macao, the aircraft were able to take off from the coastal waters.

The incident of July 16, 1948

On July 16, 1948, Miss Macoo did not arrive at Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. The authorities in Hong Kong immediately raised the alarm and the police began to search the waters between the two cities.

The only survivor, a 24-year-old Chinese rice farmer named Wong Yu, was saved by a fisherman and taken to the hospital in Macao. According to reports, one leg from Wong was broken and he was wearing a lifeguard that he had grabbed during the crash.

Although Wong described himself as an ordinary passenger and exploded that the plane had exploded in the air, contradictions in its history and questionable behavior - including the attempt to flee from the hospital - led the authorities and the press to another explanation: Miss Macao had attacked "Air Pirates" and crashed into the sea.

piracy in the air

On the day of her last flight, Miss Macao was occupied with two pilots: the American captain Dale Cramer and the Australian first officer Ken McDuff, both former military flyers. A total of 27 people were on board, including 24 passengers and a flight attendant, Delca da Costa, a Portuguese citizen from Macao, who was also McDuff's girlfriend.

Four of the passengers, however, did not intend to travel to Hong Kong. Wong confessed that he and three accomplices had sold everything to buy the tickets, with the consideration that the prey would be worthwhile.

The plan of the kidnappers

As the historian Luis Andrade de Sa describes in his book "Aviation in Macau: Hundred Years of Adventure", the four kidnappers quickly got down to business shortly after the start from Macao by storming into the cockpit and demanding control of the aircraft from the pilots.

The leading kidnapper, Chiu Tok, had taken wing hours in Manila and planned to control the plane as soon as the pilots were overwhelmed. But he had not expected that Cramer did not give up control and that there would be resistance from the main cabin. While a passenger ran down, a shot started. McDuff hit Chiu Tok with an iron rod. The kidnappers shot both pilots, and Cramer's body fell on the control of the aircraft, which caused the plane to fall into the South China Sea.

The clarification of the incident

wongs survival was exposed as unbelievable in view of the later recovered debris from Miss Macao, who were crossed with shot holes. Nevertheless, it was difficult to experience Wong's true story because he was in a bad physical and mental state.

The police decided to take Undercover Agents to the hospital in order to convince Wong to tell the truth about the events on board Miss Macao. Ultimately, he confessed that the kidnapper's plan was to take over the plane and fly to a place in the province of Guangdong in southern China, where passengers and crews of their valuables should be deprived and then held as hostages. Nobody should die.

The consequences for the aviation industry

The kidnapping of the Miss Macao was so new that nobody used the word "kidnapping" in this context - the press spoke of "air piracy". At that time there were no security checks like the scanning of the passengers with metal detectors. Only the most rudimentary security controls were carried out in which some luggage pieces were opened and searched.

The kidnappers had prepared themselves - they had attached their pistols to their legs with a black band, and the newspaper China Mail reported at the time that one of them hid firearms in the hollow sole of his shoe. Wong was ultimately deported from Macao to mainland china, where he died shortly afterwards at the age of 27 without being in court for robbery, murder or piracy.

The development of aviation

For the two former colonial cities, the aviation industry flourished in the following decades. Hong Kong developed into one of the largest air traffic hubs in the world, while Macao opened international airport in 1995. Today there is a small exhibition at the airport about important aviation stories, including the kidnapping of the Miss Macao.

The evolution of air piracy

The history of the kidnapping from Hong Kong to Macao was quickly forgotten. Many in the then young commercial aviation industry saw them as a unique incident and were convinced that aircraft ruins - or "skyjacking", as it was called at the time -, would not be common. However, the social unrest of the following years as well as growth and increasing affordability of air traffic led to a change.

From 1968 to 1972 the industry experienced what became known as the “Golden Age of kidnapping”, as Brendan I. Koerner describes in his book “The Skies Belong to Us”. "There was a kidnapping every five days," explains Porat. "In this phase, the industry tries to develop."

security measures and the future of flying

The events on board Miss Macoo were the starting point for many important changes in aviation. Although the kidnapping was initially not perceived as a serious problem, the increase in incidents caused airports to become "miniatic police states". Security controls, including metal detectors and X -ray systems for luggage, finally became the norm to protect passengers and crews.

what started with the Miss Macao incident in 1948 became a formative moment that transformed the entire aviation industry. Aircraft ratings and safety precautions of the 21st century can be attributed directly to the lessons that were learned from these early incidents.