Sam Chui (; zh, link=no, c=崔佳星, p= Cuī Jiāxīng; born 7 November 1980) is a Chinese-Australian aviation and travel

vlogger A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one ta ...

, photographer, and author.

Early life

Sam Chui was born on 7 November 1980 in

Beijing, China Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. When he was a child, his parents moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. While growing up, Chui says he often visited Hong Kong's former airport,

Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was an international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply K ...

, and watched planes land.

Career

In 1999, Chui started a website, publishing photos of

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

.Michael Jonga, It has since expanded to include current events regarding

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

. He is known for overhead pictures of

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...

captured from

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

. In 2019, Chui was invited onto a Boeing 747-SP private jet owned previously by the Qatari Royal Family and he flew from

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, Canada, to

Marana Marana may refer to: * Maraña, a village in León, Spain * Maraṇa, the Pali/Sanskrit term for death * Marana, Arizona Marana () is a List of municipalities in Arizona, town that mostly lies in Pima County, Arizona, Pima County with a smal ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

as the only passenger. In 2019, he flew from

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Tel-Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

on board the last

El Al EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. (), trading as EL AL (, "Upwards", "To the Skies", or "Skywards", stylized as ELAL; ) is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in September 1948, the airline has grown to serve ...

Israel Airlines Boeing 747 flight. Chui has a keen interest in the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

. He has logged over a million miles on 279 747 flights and has flown on every commercial variant of the 747 across 37 operators from around the world. His first flight on a Boeing 747 was in 1993 onboard United Airlines Flight 800 from Hong Kong to Tokyo Narita. Chui has flown on 240 airlines and 180 aircraft types. He has flown from New York to London on Concorde, landed on a glacier in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, visited Lukla in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and taken the longest non-stop flight from

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

to Newark. He was the sole passenger aboard the world’s only privately owned Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Chui received his Private Pilot License in the USA in July 2021. He has also worked for the

National Business Aviation Association The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a professional association and lobbying group for private business aviation. Overview NBAA is set up as a 501(c)(6) non-profit entity. NBAA organizes conferences and seminars. Edward M. ...

(NBAA) to publish highlights from the 2021 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE).

Incidents

In 2022 it was reported by several Nepalese online media that Chui was allowed into the cockpit by

Nepal Airlines Nepal Airlines Corporation (), formerly known as Royal Nepal Airlines (), is the flag carrier of Nepal. Founded in 1958, it is the oldest airline of the country. Out of its main base at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, the airline ope ...

Chief Pilot Vijaya Lama during the flight to

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

violating safety laws. The Nepalese Civil Aviation Authorities started an investigation. Lama denied these claims later in an interview later. In May 2023 Chui was suspected of violating Taiwan’s Aircraft Flight Operation Regulations due to photos and videos of him inside the flight deck on Starlux's inaugural flight from

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

to Los Angeles. The plane was piloted by Starlux Founder and Chair Chang Kuo-wei and he faced a fine of 60,000 NT$ due to the safety violation.

Books

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chui, Sam 1980 births Living people Chinese male bloggers Chinese bloggers Australian male bloggers Australian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates Chinese YouTubers Australian YouTubers Chinese emigrants to Australia People from Beijing YouTube travel vloggers