Kweilin incident
A DC-2 passenger airliner similar to the Kweilin | |
| Occurrence | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 24, 1938 |
| Summary | Strafing on the ground |
| Site | |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-2 |
| Aircraft name | Kweilin |
| Operator | China National Aviation Corporation |
| Registration | 32 |
| Flight origin | Hong Kong |
| 1st stopover | Wuzhou |
| 2nd stopover | Chongqing |
| Destination | Chengdu |
| Occupants | 18 |
| Passengers | 14 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Fatalities | 15 (including two crew) |
| Injuries | 1 (sole surviving passenger) |
| Survivors | 3 (including two crew) |
| Kweilin incident | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 桂林號事件 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 桂林号事件 | ||||||||||||
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The Kweilin incident occurred on 24 August 1938 when a Douglas DC-2 airliner named Kweilin carrying 18 passengers and crew was shot down by Japanese aircraft in China. There were fifteen fatalities including two crew. It was the first civilian airliner in history to be shot down by hostile aircraft. The pilot of the downed aircraft was American and the crew and passengers Chinese. As it was unprecedented for a civilian aircraft to be attacked, there was international diplomatic outrage over the incident. In the United States, it helped solidify the view that Japan was morally wrong in its war against China, however the incident was not enough to spur the United States into action against Japan despite Chinese entreaties. The Kweilin was rebuilt, renamed as the Chungking and destroyed by the Japanese army in a second attack two years later.