Sam Chui (/ˈtʃuːiː/; Chinese: 崔佳星; pinyin: Cuī Jiāxīng; born 7 November 1980) is a Chinese aviation and travel vlogger, photographer, and author. He has written four books including Air1, Air2, Air 3, and Air747. Chui is also a YouTube content creator.^[1][2]

Quick Facts Born, Nationality ...

Sam Chui
Born	(1980-11-07) 7 November 1980 (age 43) Beijing, China
Nationality	Chinese (Hong Konger), Australian
Education	Bachelor of Commerce
Occupation	Photographer
Years active	1999–present
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
YouTube information
Location	Worldwide
Years active	2007–present
Genre	Vlogs
Subscribers	3.43 million
Total views	877 million
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers 2017
Website	samchui.com

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Sam Chui was born on 7 November 1980 in Beijing, China.^[3] When he was a child, his parents moved to Hong Kong.^[1] While growing up, Chui says he often visited Kai Tak Airport (Hong Kong's old airport) and watched planes land.^[4]

In 1999, Chui started a website, publishing photos of aircraft. It has since expanded to include current events regarding aviation. He is known for overhead pictures of Los Angeles International Airport captured from helicopters.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, he started his YouTube channel and became well-known. Some of his videos gathered an excess of 60 million views.^{[citation needed]} Chui has traveled to over 100 countries and flown over 2,000 flights. He travels more than 300,000 miles every year to test out flights and share his reviews.^[2]

In 2019, Chui was invited onto a Boeing 747-SP private jet owned previously by the Qatari Royal Family and he flew from Hamilton, Canada, to Marana, Arizona as the only passenger.^[5] In 2019, he flew to Rome on an El Al Israel Airlines Boeing 747.^[6]

Chui has a keen interest for the Boeing 747. 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.^[5] Chui has flown on 240 airlines and 180 aircraft types. He has flown New York to London on Concorde, landed on a glacier in New Zealand, visited Lukla in Nepal and taken the longest non-stop flight from Singapore 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.^[7]

He has also worked for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) to publish highlights from the 2021 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE).^[8]

In 2022 it was reported by several newspapers that Chui got Nepal Airlines Chief Pilot Vijaya Lama suspended by gaining unauthorised access to the flight deck causing a security threat, in order to record for his vlog. The Nepalese Civil Aviation Authorities started an investigation during which Lama remained grounded. Lama denied these claims in an interview later.^[9][10][11]

In May 2023 Chui violated Taiwan’s Aircraft Flight Operation Regulations by entering the flight deck on Starlux's inaugural flight from Taipei 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.^[12]