Night Flight That Never Arrived
Routine hop to Faleolo one of Sāmoa’s more tragic and avoidable air disasters
A 1978 South Pacific Island Airways flight from Pago Pago to Faleolo vanished into Upolu’s mountains, killing all ten on board. What followed was a difficult jungle search, grieving families, and an investigation that revealed fatal pilot error and systemic failures. Decades later, the wreckage remains - and so do the unanswered sorrows.
It was understandable that Telesia Ulufafo Tavita, a young mother carrying her baby daughter Vaiuupo, hesitated before boarding the small twin-engine Cessna 402B.
Earlier that Thursday 27 April 1978, she and her family had flown from Auckland to Tafuna in American Sāmoa. Like most “Western” Sāmoans at the time, they then transferred to a smaller aircraft for the final 150-kilometre hop to Faleolo.
The Air New Zealand DC-8 had felt solid, reassuring. The aircraft waiting on the tarmac - a compact, American-registered South Pacific Island Airways (SPIA) Cessna - did not.
Once the passengers were aboard, 31-year-old pilot Rick Jensen of California was meant to sign weight-and-balance paperwork. Instead, he offered a thumbs-up. The form showed the aircraft, HK-120, was right on the limits.
The flight
Jensen departed Pago Pago at 8:12pm, flying solo at night under instrument flight rules (IFR). He had requested clearance at 6,000 feet on the direct “India” route to Faleolo and was instructed to maintain that altitude. Standard procedure required climbing south of track to avoid the mountainous interior of Upolu before turning inbound. He did not.
Three and a half minutes after reporting airborne, Jensen radioed: “One one niner is established on course.” Pago Pago acknowledged: “South Pacific 120, cruise six thousand.” Jensen read back the clearance correctly.
It was the last anyone heard from him or his nine passengers.
The night was fine and calm.
In Apia
At the time I was working in the Prime Minister’s Department in Apia, serving in various roles under Prime Minister Tupuola Efi - press secretary, editor of the government newspaper Savali, and official photographer.
