Cathay Pacific VR-HEU
Encyclopedia
VR-HEU was a four-engined propeller-driven Douglas C-54 Skymaster
airliner, the military version of the Douglas DC-4
, c/n 10310, operated by the Cathay Pacific Airways
from August 1949 to July 1954. While en route from Bangkok
to Hong Kong on 23 July 1954, the plane was shot down by fighter planes of the People's Republic of China off the coast of Hainan Island, killing 10 on board.
VR-HEU was a Douglas C-54A manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was delivered to the USAAF on 16 May 1944, where it served for less than two years. It was bought on 19 February 1946 by KLM and first operated by KLM West Indies before returning to KLM main line in February 1948. It was sold to Cathay Pacific in August 1949.
There were a total of 19 people on board VR-HEU. They consisted of three flight crew — headed by the British captain, Phil Blown — three female cabin crew and 13 passengers. In all, one flight crew member, two cabin crew members and seven passengers were killed in the attack and subsequent crash of the airliner.
At 2340 GMT, cruising at 9,000 ft and roughly 10 miles east of the international air corridor line off Hainan Island and only 31 minutes from Hong Kong, two PLAAF fighters, believed to be propeller-driven Lavochkin La-7
s, appeared behind VR-HEU, one on its starboard side at a range of about 150 yards back and 300 yards above and the other on its port side. At approximately 2344 GMT, the fighters opened fire and the no. 1 and 4 engines were hit and caught fire. The no. 4 engine's auxiliary and main fuel tank were also ablaze.
While Blown took evasive actions to avoid further damage, co-pilot Cedric Carlton issued blankets to passengers instructing them to place them on the back of their seats for protection against the bullets. Radio operator Stephen Wong made a first distress call at 0845 HKT
(2345 GMT). "Kai Tak Tower, Cathay XXX, Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! No. 1 port engine on fire, losing altitude, requesting all possible assistance." Wong made no less than 10 Mayday
calls before VR-HEU ditched. Cathay Pacific engineer G. H. Cattanach, travelling as a passenger, tried to make the passengers comfortable when it became known that the plane was going to ditch.
VR-HEU began losing altitude and at 5,000 ft, its rudder
control was shot off. Travelling at 350 miles per hour, Captain Blown tried his utmost to evade incendiary bullets coming from the fighters by turning the Skymaster left and right. At 2,000 feet, the right aileron
was shot off and the plane began turning right on its own initiative. The captain then countered the increasing turn by shutting down the Nos. 1 and 2 engines and fully opening No. 3. Approximately 2 minutes after the initial attack and unable to carry on a controlled levelled flight, the Cathay Pacific captain decided to carry out a ditching of his Skymaster in rough open seas that included 15 foot waves and a 25 knots wind.
The starboard wing tip was the first to make impact with the water, severing the right wing between the No. 3 and 4 engines. The impact caused the tail to break off and float off 50 yards from the main wreckage. The main fuselage now floated at an angle of 45 degrees with the rear open fuselage
pointing towards the sky.
After the plane ditched into the ocean, the attacking fighters ceased firing at the Skymaster around about 1,000 feet before making a turn around the wreckage and headed towards Sanya
. While nine passengers and crew were killed by bullets and the subsequent ditching, nine others survived and escaped the sinking plane. Blown and his co-pilot escaped through a broken starboard sliding window which had water coming in fast.
With all survivors floating on the water with no life vests on, co-pilot Carlton suddenly noticed that Mrs Thorburn was hanging on to a raft still in its case. Fearing the bright yellow rubber raft might attract the attention of PLAAF fighters, it took Carlton twenty minutes to finally inflate the rubber dinghy
and lift all nine passengers in. Once on the dinghy and concerned about attacking planes returning, some of the dazed, injured passengers, with their clothes in shreds, hid under a plastic sunshade covering the edges of the dinghy. Although Captain Blown and passenger Peter Thacher kept watch, the attacking planes never returned.
plane en route to Hong Kong from Hanoi and which had altered its course as a results of the calls, spotted the sinking plane and a dinghy one and a half miles from the Hainan coast. It circled for 40 minutes before heading for Hong Kong. Thanks to those calls, the RAF in Hong Kong immediately redirected a Saigon-bound Vickers Valetta
military transport and further despatched a Short Sunderland
flying boat, an Avro York
military transport, as well as two de Havilland Hornet
fighters from the 80 Squadron
, from RAF Kai Tak
to the reported position of the C-54. A fully armed French PB4Y-2 Privateer after intercepting the emergency radio call, also took off from Tourane (Da Nang
), French Indochina
(now Vietnam
).
Meanwhile, the civilian-operated Manila
rescue control centre in the Philippines
, on picking up the SOS call from Wong, alerted the 31st Air Rescue Squadron of the USAF at the Clark Air Force Base. Captain Jack T. Woodyard, on first alert duty that day, about to depart on a routine training mission in his Grumman SA-16 Albatross, 51-009, immediately took off. A second Albatross followed Woodyard 35 minutes later.
The Hornets were the first to arrive on the scene, followed by the Valetta, Sunderland, York and the Privateer. While the Hornets carried out a thorough search of the area for survivors, the French Privateer, piloted by an apparent Englishman
with a Cockney
accent, informed the Albatross which was 50 miles away, that "We have spotted the dinghy with survivors; looks like two of them from here." The British and American planes were not able to communicate with each other as they were on different radio frequencies.
Captain Blown, on seeing the Sunderland arrive, tossed a packet of green sea dye
overboard in an effort to assist rescue personnel. The Sunderland acknowledged this by setting off a smoke flare
. Unable to land in atrocious conditions, the amphibious Sunderland circled helplessly for 2 hours before Woodyard's Albatross finally arrived and circled for an hour before landing on the calmer side of Ta-Chow Island, where it taxied towards the dinghy in incredibly rough water before pulling all survivors on board and taking off for Hong Kong escorted by the Sunderland. A.A.P.
and Reuters
reported at the time that 3 survivors were picked up by the RAF Sunderland.
The last passenger to be hoisted on board was a badly injured Miss Rita Cheung, who had broken her left leg in 2 places and had suffered a deep gash on her forehead. She died aboard the rescue aircraft, 10 minutes before the plane reached Kai Tak.
Radio operator Stephen Wong was also killed. It is believed his head was impaled
on a drift meter during the ditching of the Cathay Pacific airliner.
There were several hypotheses for the attack, which included:
The official line from Peking, however, was that the Cathay Pacific airliner was mistaken as a Chinese Nationalist
(Kuomintang
) plane on a mission to raid a military base at Port Yulin
on Hainan Island.
and Britain and the US. The British Foreign Office, through its Chargé d'affaires
in Peking, Mr Humphrey Trevelyan delivered Britain's protest to Communist China two days later. The US Secretary of State, Mr John Foster Dulles
issued a sharp statement condemning the attack, saying the United States took the gravest view of the act of further barbarity and that the Chinese Communist regime must be held responsible.
On the political front, the shooting down probably harmed the PRC
's chances of admission into the United Nations
. Republican Senator H. Alexander Smith interrupted a marathon debate over atomic legislation to read Mr Dulles' statement before calling the situation "critical". Republican Representative Walter Judd, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed the view that the incident was another reason why Communist China must not be admitted to the United Nations.
The People's Republic of China
admitted responsibility three days later by apologising and making compensations to Cathay Pacific and the victims.
The two La-7 pilots were rumoured to have been executed by the PR Chinese
government.
Blown, who had been in command of VR-HEU at the time it was shot down, was hailed as a hero. He continued flying for Cathay Pacific for a further three to four years after the incident, and then retired to New South Wales, Australia, where he died in a nursing home in September 2009, aged 96. Cathay Pacific Director Flight Operations, Nick Rhodes, has commented on the bravery shown by Captain Blown on that day, and commended him for the dedication he had shown to ensuring the survival of his passengers.
C-54 Skymaster
The Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces and British forces in World War II and the Korean War. Besides transport of cargo, it also carried presidents, British heads of government, and military staff...
airliner, the military version of the Douglas DC-4
Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
, c/n 10310, operated by the Cathay Pacific Airways
Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place...
from August 1949 to July 1954. While en route from Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
to Hong Kong on 23 July 1954, the plane was shot down by fighter planes of the People's Republic of China off the coast of Hainan Island, killing 10 on board.
VR-HEU was a Douglas C-54A manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was delivered to the USAAF on 16 May 1944, where it served for less than two years. It was bought on 19 February 1946 by KLM and first operated by KLM West Indies before returning to KLM main line in February 1948. It was sold to Cathay Pacific in August 1949.
There were a total of 19 people on board VR-HEU. They consisted of three flight crew — headed by the British captain, Phil Blown — three female cabin crew and 13 passengers. In all, one flight crew member, two cabin crew members and seven passengers were killed in the attack and subsequent crash of the airliner.
Flight and attack
After being delayed in Bangkok for an hour because of mechanical problems on its no. 2 engine, VR-HEU finally took off from Bangkok at 2019 GMT on 22 July, bound for Hong Kong. A previous flight had taken the plane from Singapore. For the next 4 hours and 25 minutes the routine flight proceeded as planned.At 2340 GMT, cruising at 9,000 ft and roughly 10 miles east of the international air corridor line off Hainan Island and only 31 minutes from Hong Kong, two PLAAF fighters, believed to be propeller-driven Lavochkin La-7
Lavochkin La-7
The Lavochkin La-7 was a piston-engined Soviet fighter developed during World War II by the Lavochkin Design Bureau . It was a development and refinement of the Lavochkin La-5, and the last in a family of aircraft that had begun with the LaGG-1 in 1938. Its first flight was in early 1944 and it...
s, appeared behind VR-HEU, one on its starboard side at a range of about 150 yards back and 300 yards above and the other on its port side. At approximately 2344 GMT, the fighters opened fire and the no. 1 and 4 engines were hit and caught fire. The no. 4 engine's auxiliary and main fuel tank were also ablaze.
While Blown took evasive actions to avoid further damage, co-pilot Cedric Carlton issued blankets to passengers instructing them to place them on the back of their seats for protection against the bullets. Radio operator Stephen Wong made a first distress call at 0845 HKT
Hong Kong Time
Hong Kong Time is the time in Hong Kong, observed at UTC+8 all year round. The Hong Kong Observatory is the official timekeeper of the Hong Kong Time.-Time standards:...
(2345 GMT). "Kai Tak Tower, Cathay XXX, Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! No. 1 port engine on fire, losing altitude, requesting all possible assistance." Wong made no less than 10 Mayday
Mayday
Mayday is a distress signalMayday or May Day may also refer to:* May Day, a holiday on or around May 1** International Workers' Day* Mayday, Colorado- Music :* Mayday , an electronic music festival* Mayday...
calls before VR-HEU ditched. Cathay Pacific engineer G. H. Cattanach, travelling as a passenger, tried to make the passengers comfortable when it became known that the plane was going to ditch.
VR-HEU began losing altitude and at 5,000 ft, its rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
control was shot off. Travelling at 350 miles per hour, Captain Blown tried his utmost to evade incendiary bullets coming from the fighters by turning the Skymaster left and right. At 2,000 feet, the right aileron
Aileron
Ailerons are hinged flight control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll, which results in a change in heading due to the tilting of the lift vector...
was shot off and the plane began turning right on its own initiative. The captain then countered the increasing turn by shutting down the Nos. 1 and 2 engines and fully opening No. 3. Approximately 2 minutes after the initial attack and unable to carry on a controlled levelled flight, the Cathay Pacific captain decided to carry out a ditching of his Skymaster in rough open seas that included 15 foot waves and a 25 knots wind.
The starboard wing tip was the first to make impact with the water, severing the right wing between the No. 3 and 4 engines. The impact caused the tail to break off and float off 50 yards from the main wreckage. The main fuselage now floated at an angle of 45 degrees with the rear open fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
pointing towards the sky.
After the plane ditched into the ocean, the attacking fighters ceased firing at the Skymaster around about 1,000 feet before making a turn around the wreckage and headed towards Sanya
Sanya
Sanya is the southernmost city in China and is a part of Hainan Province. In 2006, it had a population of 536,000, making it, after the provincial capital , the second most populous city on the island. The city is renowned for its tropical climate and has emerged as a popular tourist destination,...
. While nine passengers and crew were killed by bullets and the subsequent ditching, nine others survived and escaped the sinking plane. Blown and his co-pilot escaped through a broken starboard sliding window which had water coming in fast.
With all survivors floating on the water with no life vests on, co-pilot Carlton suddenly noticed that Mrs Thorburn was hanging on to a raft still in its case. Fearing the bright yellow rubber raft might attract the attention of PLAAF fighters, it took Carlton twenty minutes to finally inflate the rubber dinghy
Dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a ship's boat by a larger vessel. It is a loanword from either Bengali or Urdu. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor,...
and lift all nine passengers in. Once on the dinghy and concerned about attacking planes returning, some of the dazed, injured passengers, with their clothes in shreds, hid under a plastic sunshade covering the edges of the dinghy. Although Captain Blown and passenger Peter Thacher kept watch, the attacking planes never returned.
Rescue efforts
An Air VietnamAir Vietnam
Active from 1951 to 1975, Air Viet Nam was South Vietnam's first commercial air carrier, headquartered in District 1, Saigon. Established under Emperor Bảo Đại, the Chief of State of South Vietnam, the airline flew over one million passengers, including during the Vietnam War, before its collapse...
plane en route to Hong Kong from Hanoi and which had altered its course as a results of the calls, spotted the sinking plane and a dinghy one and a half miles from the Hainan coast. It circled for 40 minutes before heading for Hong Kong. Thanks to those calls, the RAF in Hong Kong immediately redirected a Saigon-bound Vickers Valetta
Vickers Valetta
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam, 1988. ISBN 0-85177-815-1....
military transport and further despatched a Short Sunderland
Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town and port of Sunderland in northeast England....
flying boat, an Avro York
Avro York
The Avro York was a British transport aircraft that was derived from the Second World War Lancaster heavy bomber, and used in both military and airliner roles between 1943 and 1964.-Design and development:...
military transport, as well as two de Havilland Hornet
De Havilland Hornet
The de Havilland DH.103 Hornet was a piston engine fighter that further exploited the wooden construction techniques pioneered by de Havilland's classic Mosquito. Entering service at the end of the Second World War, the Hornet equipped postwar RAF Fighter Command day fighter units in the UK and was...
fighters from the 80 Squadron
No. 80 Squadron RAF
No. 80 Squadron RAF was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force squadron active from 1917 until 1969. It was operative during both World War I and World War II.-Establishment and early service:...
, from RAF Kai Tak
RAF Kai Tak
RAF Kai Tak was a Royal Air Force station in Hong Kong. It was opened in 1927 and used for seaplanes. The RAF flight operated a few land based aircraft as well as having spare aircraft for naval units.-History:...
to the reported position of the C-54. A fully armed French PB4Y-2 Privateer after intercepting the emergency radio call, also took off from Tourane (Da Nang
Da Nang
Đà Nẵng , occasionally Danang, is a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Han River. It is the commercial and educational center of Central Vietnam; its well-sheltered, easily accessible port and its location on the path of...
), French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
(now Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
).
Meanwhile, the civilian-operated Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
rescue control centre in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, on picking up the SOS call from Wong, alerted the 31st Air Rescue Squadron of the USAF at the Clark Air Force Base. Captain Jack T. Woodyard, on first alert duty that day, about to depart on a routine training mission in his Grumman SA-16 Albatross, 51-009, immediately took off. A second Albatross followed Woodyard 35 minutes later.
The Hornets were the first to arrive on the scene, followed by the Valetta, Sunderland, York and the Privateer. While the Hornets carried out a thorough search of the area for survivors, the French Privateer, piloted by an apparent Englishman
Englishman
Englishman may refer to:*English people*Grey Partridge*Jason Englishman, Canadian rock music singer and guitarist*Jenny-Bea Englishman, real name of the Canadien singer Esthero*Erald Briscoe, reggae musician who records under the name Englishman...
with a Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
accent, informed the Albatross which was 50 miles away, that "We have spotted the dinghy with survivors; looks like two of them from here." The British and American planes were not able to communicate with each other as they were on different radio frequencies.
Captain Blown, on seeing the Sunderland arrive, tossed a packet of green sea dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
overboard in an effort to assist rescue personnel. The Sunderland acknowledged this by setting off a smoke flare
Flare (pyrotechnic)
A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signalling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...
. Unable to land in atrocious conditions, the amphibious Sunderland circled helplessly for 2 hours before Woodyard's Albatross finally arrived and circled for an hour before landing on the calmer side of Ta-Chow Island, where it taxied towards the dinghy in incredibly rough water before pulling all survivors on board and taking off for Hong Kong escorted by the Sunderland. A.A.P.
Australian Associated Press
Australian Associated Press is Australia's national news agency. The organisation was established in 1935 by Fairfax and The Herald and Weekly Times.AAP employs more than 175 journalists who work in bureaux in all Australian states and territories...
and Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
reported at the time that 3 survivors were picked up by the RAF Sunderland.
The last passenger to be hoisted on board was a badly injured Miss Rita Cheung, who had broken her left leg in 2 places and had suffered a deep gash on her forehead. She died aboard the rescue aircraft, 10 minutes before the plane reached Kai Tak.
Radio operator Stephen Wong was also killed. It is believed his head was impaled
Impalement
Impalement is the traumatic penetration of an organism by an elongated foreign object such as a stake, pole, or spear, and this usually implies complete perforation of the central mass of the impaled body...
on a drift meter during the ditching of the Cathay Pacific airliner.
There were several hypotheses for the attack, which included:
- VR-HEU was carrying a Chinese NationalistRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
ambassadorAmbassadorAn ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
; - The United States Ambassador to Thailand, "Wild Bill" DonovanWilliam Joseph DonovanWilliam Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services...
, former head of the OSS (the forerunner of CIA) was to have travelled on a Civil Air TransportCivil Air TransportCivil Air Transport was a Chinese airline, later owned by the CIA, that supported United States covert operations throughout East and Southeast Asia...
plane that same week.
The official line from Peking, however, was that the Cathay Pacific airliner was mistaken as a Chinese Nationalist
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
(Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
) plane on a mission to raid a military base at Port Yulin
Sanya
Sanya is the southernmost city in China and is a part of Hainan Province. In 2006, it had a population of 536,000, making it, after the provincial capital , the second most populous city on the island. The city is renowned for its tropical climate and has emerged as a popular tourist destination,...
on Hainan Island.
Aftermath
The shooting down of VR-HEU raised tension between the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and Britain and the US. The British Foreign Office, through its Chargé d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
in Peking, Mr Humphrey Trevelyan delivered Britain's protest to Communist China two days later. The US Secretary of State, Mr John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...
issued a sharp statement condemning the attack, saying the United States took the gravest view of the act of further barbarity and that the Chinese Communist regime must be held responsible.
On the political front, the shooting down probably harmed the PRC
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
's chances of admission into the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Republican Senator H. Alexander Smith interrupted a marathon debate over atomic legislation to read Mr Dulles' statement before calling the situation "critical". Republican Representative Walter Judd, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed the view that the incident was another reason why Communist China must not be admitted to the United Nations.
The People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
admitted responsibility three days later by apologising and making compensations to Cathay Pacific and the victims.
The two La-7 pilots were rumoured to have been executed by the PR Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
government.
Blown, who had been in command of VR-HEU at the time it was shot down, was hailed as a hero. He continued flying for Cathay Pacific for a further three to four years after the incident, and then retired to New South Wales, Australia, where he died in a nursing home in September 2009, aged 96. Cathay Pacific Director Flight Operations, Nick Rhodes, has commented on the bravery shown by Captain Blown on that day, and commended him for the dedication he had shown to ensuring the survival of his passengers.