Big Aircraft Using

Tafuna Airport

LARGE aircraft are using Eastern Samoa’s Tafuna Airfield, a few miles along the south coast of Tutuila from Pago Pago, although it will require a considerable amount of money to be spent on it before Pan American Airways can divert their South Pacific service from Canton to Samoa.

Last month we reported that the US Navy had instituted a plan to fly Samoan servicemen home from Hawaii on leave. The first party arrived in an RSD, one of the largest aircraft flying to-day, and departed again without fuss.

The US Government has com pleted arrangements for a May charter flight of Government per sonnel into Samoa, with others re turning home, by Pan American Airways aircraft. The incoming staff were to arrive on May 20 by a routine south-bound flight which would continue on to Fiji, and an other north-bound aircraft was to divert from Fiji on May 22 to pick up the outgoing personnel.

The arrangement saved the US Government a considerable sum of money, as normally staff must travel south to Fiji, then east to Western Samoa by TEAL aircraft, and com plete the last stage to Pago Pago by small inter-island vessels. Ex pensive stop-overs awaiting connec tions are involved, as well as the time factor.

These charter flights were along the route that Pan American plans to use when Tafuna has been brought up to the internationally accepted standards.