AIR PIRACY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1938, Page 8

AIR PIRACY

PASSENGER PLANE ATTACKED BY JAPANESE FORCED DOWN IN CANTON DELTA. OCCUPANTS ALLEGEDLY MACHINE-GUNNED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. (Recd This Day, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, August 27. It is reported from Hong Kong that Japanese pursuit planes forced down a Chinese National Aviation Company’s pasenger plane over the West River. The company says that all the passengers are safe. A later message states that the airliner is owned by a Sino-American company and piloted by an American. There were no other foreigners aboard. It is surmised that the liner was attacked because the Japanese had a mistaken belief that the late Dr Sun Yat Sen’s son, Dr Sun Fo, was aboard, but he was on another plane. The Japanese, diving over the machine continuously, but not firing, forced it down in the Canton Delta. A number of influential Chinese aboard a British gunboat are going to the assistance of the liner. A Macao message states that it is now feared that twelve pasengers were killed. It is reported that the Japanese flew low and machine-gunned the occupants as they were extricating themselves from the machine. The pilot, Mr Woods, has arrived in Macao, accompanied by a wounded Chinese passenger.