As the flight progressed, City of Oakland seemed to be performing satisfactorily. The radio initially worked well, and even though they could not see the ocean below them the two men felt in close touch with the world. After about two hours, however, the receiver went out. Although they could still transmit, they could no longer receive radio signals as aids to navigation. They also could not speak with rescuers in the event of an emergency.

Shortly after their radio receiver failed, Smith and Bronte released one of the pigeons at the prearranged distance of 200 miles into the flight. About two hours later, 400 miles out, the second bird was released. Two other birds remained on board for emergency communications.

City of Oakland droned westward, flying at an altitude between 3,000 and 4,000 feet most of the time and always with a floor of fog. It performed flawlessly into the evening, and Smith and Bronte sent out a series of optimistic radio messages.

As they were flying only three weeks after the summer solstice, the long evening and twilight effectively minimized the hours of darkness. By the time it was fully dark, the flight was almost half completed. Now the fliers had to battle the drowsiness that came with sitting in a cramped position for long hours, listening to the loud whirring of the engine. They ate some of their food, drank some coffee and scanned the gauges and dials regularly.

Toward morning, the engine began to run more roughly, and the fuel pump gauge showed that fuel had dropped to a dangerously low level. With at least another six hours of flying time ahead of them, Smith and Bronte for the first time became concerned that they might not make it to Hawaii. They sent out radio messages announcing their predicament. Finally, when it appeared that the plane was running out of gas and that they would have to ditch, they sent out an SOS, reporting their position and asking for help from any ships in the vicinity. Then the radio went silent.

Responding to the distress signal, several ships in the area changed course and raced toward the last position transmitted by the fliers. Radio operators in Hawaii and California announced to newspapers that the plane had gone down but that in all likelihood a rescue was imminent.

Smith took City of Oakland down close to the water, intending to ditch while he still had enough gas to permit a powered landing. But as he leveled out just above the water, the engine roared back to life. Hoping that the fuel gauge had simply been malfunctioning, Smith began to climb again to a safer altitude. The plane responded well to his touch, since the fuel aboard now weighed considerably less than on takeoff. While the plane had been close to the sea, however, its radio antenna had dragged in the water and had been carried away. Now the plane could neither transmit nor receive radio messages.

With the coming of dawn the two airmen saw the Pacific Ocean beneath them for the first time. Not long after, they got their first sight of land, the 14,000-foot peaks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, off to their southwest. Only then could they feel reassured that Bronte’s navigation had been accurate. Everything now depended on how much gas remained in the tanks.

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