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China Airlines Flight 831

9 Mar 1978 · Hong Kong

Boeing 737-281 · Aircraft hijacking

From Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH) to Kai Tak Airport

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
1 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
101
Survivors
100
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
2
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline

Boeing 737-281

Aircraft type
Boeing 737
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
B-1870
Onboard fatalities
1
Route
From Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH)To Kai Tak Airport

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

China Airlines Flight 831 was a scheduled passenger flight from Kaohsiung in Taiwan to British Hong Kong that was hijacked on 9 March 1978.

Hijacking

The flight, operated by a Boeing 737-281 registered as B-1870, departed at 16:08 local time and was uneventful until 17:00, when a flight engineer, 34-year-old Shi Mingcheng, broke into the cockpit and demanded the pilots to fly to Mainland China. Captain Gao Zhixian and First Officer Gong Zhongkang (both former Republic of China Air Force pilots) refused the demands and were beaten by Shi who wielded a hammer and a pair of scissors. Despite having injuries from the beating, the pilots managed to order an on-board security guard to the cockpit. The guard broke down the cockpit door using a fire extinguisher, shot and killed the hijacker. The flight landed at Kai Tak Airport at 17:20, after which the Airport Security Unit searched the aircraft for potential accomplices and questioned passengers. The pilots were then taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital due to their injuries.

Text from the Wikipedia article “China Airlines Flight 831” (revision 1372770595, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: China Airlines Flight 831
Article
China Airlines Flight 831
Revision
1372770595 · 2026-09-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q10876548
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "China Airlines Flight 831" (page 70098473, revision 1372770595)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
none
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
flight number in the article title
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.