On January 30 , 1974 , Pan Am Flight 806 from Auckland , New Zealand crashed at Pago Pago International Airport at 10:41 p.m. , with 91 passengers aboard . 86 people were killed , including Captain Leroy A. Petersen and the entire flight crew . Four of the five surviving passengers were seriously injured , with the other only slightly injured . The airliner was completely destroyed by the impact and succeeding fire . The crash was attributed to poor visibility , pilot error , or wind shear , since a violent storm was raging at the time . In January 2014 , filmmaker Paul Crompton visited the territory to interview local residents for a documentary film about the 1974 crash
Pan Am Flight 806
Pan Am Flight 806
American Samoa