On July 16, 1948, an act that is considered to be the first ever hijacking of a commercial airplane took place. Huang Yu was the only person to survive the attempted hijacking, and he later admitted to being the plot's commander. Despite this, he was allowed to go free without going through a trial since there was some uncertainty as to whether Macau or Hong Kong had the power to try him.
Because this was the first time in aviation history that a commercial aircraft had been hijacked, this event marked a significant turning point in the history of aviation. This act of brutality generated a discussion all across the world about the most effective way to cope with the risk of hijacking. Unfortunately, no conclusive solution was found, and the problem continues to be a significant source of concern for airlines as well as passengers.
Although it's possible that Huang Yu was the first person to take over a commercial airliner, it's quite unlikely that he was the last. In the years that have passed since then, there have been hundreds of hijackings, the majority of which ended in disaster. The most notorious hijacking took place on September 11, 2001, when terrorists fleeing their planes slammed them into the World Trade Center in New York City.
This tragedy ushered in a new era of security measures aimed to prevent such attacks from happening again, and it forever altered the way we see hijacking.