Cargo Flight Delivers Packages After 3-Day Delay

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Residents who showed up Saturday and yesterday at the Post Office to pick up packages learned that the cargo flight was delayed and their mail did not arrive.

Easter Galo of Fax cargo says the aircraft was forced to return as the load it was carrying would have required refueling on Christmas Island.

However there was no fuel on the island, says Ms. Galo.

The cargo plane was then scheduled to arrive at 3 this morning but was delayed again and only landed at Pago Pago International Airport just before 9am.

Post Master Tao Suani told KHJ News that the first pallets of mail delivered to the Post Office were unloaded and sorted immediately.

A staff member of Fax Cargo said she counted more than 5 pallets of mail.

For the last several weeks the cargo flight has been delayed mainly due to weather according to Ms. Galo.

And there was one week when the cargo load for American Samoa was much lower than the usual cargo shipment that the flight was cancelled and that week’s cargo was combined with the one for a week ago.

For that combined cargo delivery, the mail packages alone totaled 50,000 pounds.

According to Ms Galo,  the territory will soon be serviced by a bigger aircraft, to replace the 727 now bringing our mail packages, goods and equipment for local stores, the canneries, the LBJ Hospital, and other importers.

The 727 is limited to 35,000 pounds but the bigger 757 plane that will be flying here in a couple of weeks, can carry up to 80,000 pounds.

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