U.S. plane crash in Samoa kills 9

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 1

U.S. plane crash in Samoa kills 9

NZPA-Reuter'. Honolulu' At ’least, nine people were • • killed yesterday' .when a... United States Navy aircraft, hit a tram cable and crashed into a hotel in. Pago Pago, American Samoa, said i>aspokesman for the United States Pacific Fleet. ■ - All six crew and three* civilians on the ground died when the four engine, turbo-prop Orion, crashed into a wing of the Rainmaker Hotel, ■ ' and caught fire on the island of Tiituila, he,said. About 75 rooms in the

■ old part of the. hotel were gutted. ? . The * plane had just "dropped' a -United States -■■Army -parachute team ■from Honolulu when the crash occurred, the A spokesman said. 2 .-1- The parachute display was .'■part of local Flag Day celebrations in American. 'amoa, the island nation’s most important holiday. J ••. ‘ , One civilian- was critically burned in the crash that left the whig of the 250-room (formerly the Americana) ’ hotel ,in flames, said the head of

the American Samoan liaison- Office in ’ Honolulu (Mr . F. Rohlfing). . ' The names of thevictims'are being withheld. One - dead civilian, reportedly Japanese, . was burned beyond recognition. The injured civilian, also Japanese, was burned on. 80 per cent of his body and, was to be flown to Hawaii for treatment, < according , to a Pago Pago resident. . . The two-storey hotel was. nearly empty, with most of its guests at a .parade ground attending the cere ’.