Relatives of one of the 1980 Flag Day plane crash victims are visiting the territory and will attend the Flag Day festivities today.
They are Thomas and Chris Montis from Heath, Ohio.
Chris is the sister of US navy man Thomas Del Viscio, one of the seven people who were killed when a plane carrying US Navy parachuters struck the cable lines for the tramway to Mt. Alava and crashed at the old Rainmaker Hotel site.
The plane was based at Mofett Field Naval Air Station, Calif. It had just dropped six U.S. Army parachute jumpers over the Fagatogo malae.
Three jumpers were blown off their target and the plane turned, apparently to follow their descent, when it snagged on a cable of the cross-by tramway.
The four-engine P3 Orion turboprop narrowly missed the Fagatogo malae, jammed with an estimated 30,000 spectators for the Flag Day celebration that year.
All six crew members were killed plus a tourist in the Rainmaker Hotel.
A monument at the tramway site in Utulei bears the names of the crash victims.
The couple has been hosted during their visit by the American Samoa Visitors Bureau.
