KiaGreenwald at 14:35, 23 April 2026

2026-04-23T14:35:39Z

New page

{{Short description|1955 airliner bombing}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Italic title}}

{{more citations needed|date = April 2014}}
{{copyedit|date=February 2026}}
{{Infobox Airliner accident
| name = Air India Flight 300
| occurrence_type = Bombing
| image = Lockheed L-749A VT-DEO AII LAP 08.06.53 edited-2.jpg
| image_upright = 1.16
| alt =
| caption = A Lockheed Constellation similar to the incident aircraft
| date = {{start date|1955|04|11}}
| summary = Bombing
| site = off the [[Natuna Islands]], Indonesia
| coordinates =
| aircraft_type = [[Lockheed L-749 Constellation|Lockheed L-749A Constellation]]
| aircraft_name = ''Kashmir Princess''
| operator = [[Air India]]
| plane1_IATA = AI300
| plane1_ICAO = AIC300
| plane1_callsign = AIRINDIA 300
| tail_number = {{airreg|VT|DEP}}
| origin = [[Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport|Santa Cruz Airport]], Bombay, India
| stopover = [[Kai Tak Airport]], Hong Kong
| stopover0 =
| last_stopover =
| destination = [[Kemayoran Airport]], Jakarta, Indonesia
| passengers = 11
| crew = 8
| injuries = 3
| fatalities = 16
| missing =
| survivors = 3
}}

The '''''Kashmir Princess''''', or '''Air India Flight 300''',<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Target Zhou Enlai: The "Kashmir Princess' Incident of 1955 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/655141 |access-date=November 23, 2021 |journal=The China Quarterly |jstor=655141 |last1=Tsang |first1=Steve |year=1994 |volume=139 |issue=139 |pages=766–782 |doi=10.1017/S0305741000043150 |s2cid=154183849 |archive-date=8 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908224623/https://www.jstor.org/stable/655141 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> was a chartered [[Lockheed L-749 Constellation|Lockheed L-749A Constellation]] [[Air India]] flight. On 11 April 1955, it was damaged midair by a bomb explosion and crashed into the [[South China Sea]] while en route from [[Bombay]], India, and Hong Kong to [[Jakarta]], Indonesia.<ref name="AS">{{cite web|url =http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19550411-1|title =Accident description|access-date =18 June 2009|publisher =Aviation Safety|archive-date =25 August 2009|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090825205700/http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19550411-1|url-status =live}}</ref> Of the nineteen passengers, only three survived. <ref name="CD">{{cite news|url =http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/21/content_350313.htm|title =China spills Zhou Enlai secret|date =21 July 2004|access-date =18 June 2009|work =China Daily|archive-date =9 March 2009|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090309203746/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/21/content_350313.htm|url-status =live}}</ref> The explosion was an assassination attempt targeting Chinese Premier [[Zhou Enlai]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Déjà vu from 30,000 ft|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Dj-vu-from-30000-ft/articleshow/45747222.cms|work=The Times of India|date=4 January 2015|access-date=29 September 2015|archive-date=7 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160607212935/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Dj-vu-from-30000-ft/articleshow/45747222.cms|url-status=live}}</ref> who missed the flight either due to a medical emergency or, as one historian concluded, because he had prior knowledge. The Chinese government insisted that Hong Kong authorities investigate; they concluded that the [[Kuomintang]] were responsible for the bombing.<ref name="tsang-1994">{{cite journal|last1=Tsang|first1=Steve|date=September 1994|title=Target Zhou Enlai: The 'Kashmir Princess' Incident of 1955|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/655141|journal=China Quarterly|volume=139|issue=139|pages=766–782|doi=10.1017/S0305741000043150|jstor=655141|s2cid=154183849|access-date=8 September 2021|archive-date=8 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908224623/https://www.jstor.org/stable/655141|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Explosion==
Flight 300 departed Hong Kong at 04:25 [[GMT]] carrying Chinese and Eastern European delegates, mainly journalists, to the Afro-Asian [[Bandung Conference]] in Jakarta.<ref name="CD"/> At approximately 09:25 GMT, the crew heard an explosion; smoke quickly entered the cabin from a fire on the right wing directly behind the No. 3 (or right inboard) engine. Upon hearing the explosion and seeing the fire-warning light for the baggage compartment come on, the captain shut down the No. 3 engine and feathered its propeller, fearing it might catch fire. This left three engines running. The crew sent out three distress signals giving their position over the [[Natuna Islands]] before the radio went dead.<ref name="AS"/>

The captain tried to land the plane on the sea, but the [[depressurisation|depressurising]] cabin and failing circuits made it impossible. Additionally, smoke was seeping into the cockpit. Left with no other option, the crew issued [[life jacket]]s and opened the emergency doors to ensure a quick escape as the plane plunged into the sea below.

==Crash==
The starboard wing struck water first, tearing the plane into three parts. The aircraft maintenance engineer (ground engineer), navigator and first officer escaped and were later found by the [[Indonesian Coast Guard]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Karnik |first1=A.S. |title=Kashmir Princess |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.127556 |website=Internet Archive |publisher=Digital Library Of India |access-date=3 July 2025 |ref=Karnik}}</ref> The remaining 16 passengers and crew members, however, drowned at sea.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mendis |first=Sean |url=http://www.airwhiners.net/whine_cheez/20040726.htm |title=Air India : The story of the aircraft |work=Airwhiners.net |date=26 July 2004 |access-date=13 June 2013 |archive-date=24 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724221328/http://www.airwhiners.net/whine_cheez/20040726.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Investigators believed that the explosion had been caused by a [[Time bomb (explosive)|time bomb]] placed aboard the aircraft by a [[Kuomintang]] [[secret service|secret agent]] who was attempting to assassinate [[Premier of the People's Republic of China|Chinese Premier]] [[Zhou Enlai]], who had been scheduled to board the plane to attend the conference but had changed his travel plans at the last minute.<ref name="CD"/>

== Zhou Enlai ==
The target of the assassination attempt, Zhou Enlai, had planned to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong and then on to Jakarta on the ''Kashmir Princess''. An emergency [[appendectomy]] delayed his arrival in Hong Kong;<ref name="Itoh2017">{{cite book|author=Mayumi Itoh|title=''The Making of China's Peace with Japan: What Xi Jinping Should Learn from Zhou Enlai''| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=weAqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|year=2017| publisher=Springer|isbn=978-9811040085|page=37}}</ref> he left China three days after the crash and flew to [[Rangoon]] to meet with [[Indian Prime Minister]] [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and Burmese Prime Minister [[U Nu]] before continuing to Bandung to attend the conference.<ref name="CD"/>

Some historians have argued that Zhou may have known about the assassination plot beforehand and that the premier did not undergo an appendectomy at the time. [[Steve Tsang]] of [[Oxford University]] wrote in the September 1994 edition of ''[[The China Quarterly]]'', "Evidence now suggests that Zhou knew of the plot beforehand and secretly changed his travel plans, though he did not stop a decoy delegation of lesser cadres from taking his place."<ref name="tsang-1994" />

== Investigation ==
The day after the crash, China's [[Foreign Ministry]] issued a statement that described the bombing as "a murder by the special service organizations of the United States and [[Chiang Kai-shek]]",<ref name=Tsang>Steve Tsang, The Cold War's Odd Couple: The Unintended Partnership Between the Republic of China and the UK (New York: IB Tauris, 2006), 181.</ref> while [[Hong Kong Governor]] Sir [[Alexander Grantham]] maintained that the plane was not tampered with in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong authorities offered [[HK$]]100,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible. They questioned 71 people connected with the servicing of the Air India flight. When police began focusing on Chow Tse-ming, a janitor for Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., he stowed away on a [[CIA]]-owned [[Civil Air Transport]] aircraft to Taiwan. The Hong Kong police reported that a warrant charging a murder conspiracy was issued, but the man with the name Chow Tse-ming in the warrant had flown to Taiwan on 18 May 1955, and Chow Tse-ming had three aliases.<ref>"Police Seek Chinese in Crash Case" from Daytona Beach Morning Journal, 3 September 1955</ref>

Steve Tsang collected evidence from British, Taiwanese, American, and Hong Kong archives that points directly to KMT agents operating in Hong Kong as the perpetrators of the aircraft bombing. According to him, the [[Kuomintang|KMT]] had a special operations group stationed in Hong Kong responsible for assassination and sabotage. Designated the Hong Kong Group under [[Major-General]] Kong Hoi-ping, it operated a network of 90 agents. In March 1955, the group recruited Chow for the assassination because his job at the airport gave him easy access to the Air India plane, and offered him HK$600,000 and refuge in Taiwan, if necessary.<ref name=Tsang />

A [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China|Chinese Foreign Ministry]] document declassified in 2004 also indicates that the [[Kuomintang|KMT]] secret service was responsible for the bombing.<ref>{{cite news |title=外交部揭密"克什米尔公主号"周总理座机被炸案(图) |url=http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2004-07-20/07153133667s.shtml |access-date=27 March 2019 |agency=京华时报 |publisher=新华网 |date=20 July 2004 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327033802/http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2004-07-20/07153133667s.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

China had from the outset accused the United States of involvement in the bombing, but while the CIA had considered a plan to assassinate Zhou Enlai at this time,<ref>Minnick, Wendell L. "Target: Zhou Enlai", Far Eastern Economic Review, 1995-07-13, pp. 54–55.</ref> the [[Church Committee]] – a US Senate select committee that investigated the US intelligence community – reported that these plans were disapproved of and "strongly censured" by Washington.<ref>Arthur M. Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 517.</ref> In a 1971 face-to-face meeting in the [[Great Hall of the People]] in Beijing, Zhou directly asked [[Henry Kissinger]] about US involvement in the bombing. Kissinger responded, "As I told the Prime Minister the last time, he vastly overestimates the competence of the CIA."<ref>{{citation
| volume = Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E-13, Documents on China, 1969–1972
| series = Foreign
| title = Memorandum of conversation (Henry Kissinger, Zhou Enlai, and staff)
| date = 21 October 1971
| publisher = [[United States Department of State]]
}}</ref> However, in 1967, an American defector in Moscow, John Discoe Smith, had claimed that he had delivered a suitcase containing an explosive mechanism to a Chinese nationalist in Hong Kong.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=John Discoe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=31MMAAAAIAAJ |title=I was a CIA Agent in India |date=1967 |publisher=Communist Party of India |language=en |access-date=29 December 2022 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412045255/https://books.google.com/books?id=31MMAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Urquhart |first=Brian |title=Hammarskjold |publisher=Knopf |year=1972 |isbn=978-0394479606 |location=New York |pages=121–122 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Indonesia, 1957–1958: War and pornography – William Blum |url=https://williamblum.org/chapters/killing-hope/indonesia |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=williamblum.org |language=en |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229211018/https://williamblum.org/chapters/killing-hope/indonesia |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Paul |date=2002-11-08 |title=Harry Rositzke, 91, Linguist And American Spymaster |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/us/harry-rositzke-91-linguist-and-american-spymaster.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229211017/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/us/harry-rositzke-91-linguist-and-american-spymaster.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | author = Peter Grose |date=1967-12-05 |title=U.S. Defector in Moscow Is Pictured as a Paranoid in Wife's Testimony in Florida Divorce Case; Fixed Code Machines Court Records Found |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/05/archives/us-defector-in-moscow-is-pictured-as-a-paranoid-in-wifes-testimony.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229211018/https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/05/archives/us-defector-in-moscow-is-pictured-as-a-paranoid-in-wifes-testimony.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In addition to the [[Kuomintang|KMT]], there were rumors of CIA involvement in this incident as well. Aside from the fact that Chow escaped to Taiwan aboard a CIA-owned aircraft, there was no evidence that the CIA was involved until a decade later, when several Americans claimed they were involved.<ref name="namebase">{{cite web
|url=https://archive.today/20130113072231/http://www.namebase.org/ppost07.html
|title=Target: Zhou Enlai
|first=Wendell L.
|last=Minnick
|date=1995-07-13
|work=[[NameBase]]
|publisher=
|archiveurl=https://archive.today/aqVXzJ
|archivedate=2013-01-13
|accessdate=2025-07-03}}</ref>

Zhou Enlai was an influential figure in Communist China, and the United States saw him as an obstacle in the [[Cold War]]. At the time, the West viewed the Bandung Conference as a gathering of communists and pro-communists that would boost the expansion of [[communism]] in Asia. The CIA believed that China planned to use the conference to boost its image as a world power. Although the CIA sent several agents posing as journalists to cover the conference, evidence suggests that some CIA officers might have taken further action.<ref name="namebase"/>

In 1966, a [[U.S. Senate]] committee investigating CIA operations heard testimony that gave murky details of a CIA plot to assassinate an "East Asian leader" attending a 1955 Asian conference. That leader's identity would remain unknown until 1977, when [[William R. Corson]], a retired U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in Asia, published ''Armies of Ignorance'' identifying that leader as Zhou Enlai.<ref name="namebase"/>

On 24 October 1967, a CIA agent [[John Discoe Smith]] defected to the [[Soviet Union]]. There, Smith recounted many of his operations in his memoirs, titled ''I Was an Agent of the CIA'', including his delivery of a mysterious bag to a KMT agent. He says that in 1955, Jack Curran, a CIA officer attached to the [[U.S. Embassy]] in [[New Delhi]], asked him to deliver a bag to Wang Feng at the [[Maidens Hotel]] in the Indian capital. Smith claimed that the bag contained the bomb used to sabotage ''Kashmir Princess''.<ref name="namebase"/>

== Commemorations ==
Captain D.K. Jatar was awarded the [[Ashoka Chakra Award|Ashok Chakra]], and stewardess Gloria Eva Berry was awarded the [[Kirti Chakra]] posthumously. First officer M.C Dixit, ground maintenance engineer Anant Karnik, and navigator J.C. Pathak were awarded the [[Shaurya Chakra]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gallantryawards.gov.in/awards|title=Gallantry awards|work=[[Government of India]]|access-date=1 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-05 |title=The death of an unknown Indian pilot, and the lost history of a CIA plot to kill a Chinese premier |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/death-unknown-indian-pilot-lost-history-cia-plot-kill-chinese-premier-8307275/ |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=The Indian Express |language=en |archive-date=14 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221214093059/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/death-unknown-indian-pilot-lost-history-cia-plot-kill-chinese-premier-8307275/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2005, the [[Xinhua News Agency]] hosted a [[Academic conference|symposium]] to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the crash; three Xinhua journalists had been among the victims.<ref name="XN">{{cite news|date=11 April 2004|title=China marks journalists killed in premier murder plot 50 years ago|work=[[Wayback Machine]]|agency=Xinhua Net|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/11/content_2815170.htm|access-date=2021-12-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050419074046/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/11/content_2815170.htm|archive-date=2005-04-19}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Timeline of airliner bombing attacks]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Further reading ===
* Li, Hong. "The Truth Behind the 'Kashmir Princess' Incident". In ''Selected Essays on the History of Contemporary China'', (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2015), {{doi|10.1163/9789004292673_013}}
* [http://www.airwhiners.net/whine_cheez/20040726.htm "Air India: The Story of the Aircraft"], [http://airwhiners.net Air Whiners], 2004-07-26
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050419074046/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/11/content_2815170.htm "China marks journalists killed in premier murder plot 50 years ago"], [[Xinhua News Agency]], 2005-04-11
* [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/21/content_350313.htm "China spills Zhou Enlai secret"], [[China Daily]], 2004-07-21
* Minnick, Wendell L. "[http://www.namebase.org/ppost07.html Target: Zhou Enlai]", ''[[Far Eastern Economic Review]]'', 1995-07-13, pp. 54–55. ([https://archive.today/20130113072231/http://www.namebase.org/ppost07.html Archive])

== External links ==
* {{ASN accident|id=19550411-1|type=Criminal Occurrence}}
*[https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10973/49740/GIPE-053164.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Final Report]

{{Air India}}
{{Lockheed Constellation family}}
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Indonesia before 2000}}
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1955}}
{{Cross-Strait relations}}
{{Portal bar|Aviation|China|Taiwan|Hong Kong|India|Indonesia|1950s|Politics}}
{{authority control}}
{{coord|12|N|113|E|display=title}}

[[Category:Explosions in 1955]]
[[Category:Zhou Enlai]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1955]]
[[Category:1955 mass murders]]
[[Category:Massacres committed by Taiwan]]
[[Category:Airliner bombings]]
[[Category:Assassinations in Asia]]
[[Category:Cross-strait relations]]
[[Category:Failed assassination attempts in Asia]]
[[Category:1955 in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:1955 in China]]
[[Category:1955 murders in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1955]]
[[Category:Anti-communist terrorism]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed Constellation]]
[[Category:Air India accidents and incidents]]
[[Category:Improvised explosive device bombings in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Hong Kong–Taiwan relations]]
[[Category:CIA activities in Asia]]
[[Category:Individual aircraft]]
[[Category:April 1955 in Asia]]
[[Category:State-sponsored terrorism]]
[[Category:1955 disasters in Indonesia]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murders in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Natuna Regency]]
[[Category:History of the South China Sea]]
[[Category:1950s in Mumbai]]
[[Category:Improvised explosive device bombings in the 1950s]]

Kashmir Princess - Revision history

KiaGreenwald at 14:35, 23 April 2026