At 08:16 on 5 May, TF 17 rendezvoused with TF 11 and TF 44 at a predetermined point south of Guadalcanal (). At about the same time, four Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters from "Yorktown" intercepted a Kawanishi H6K reconnaissance flying boat from the Yokohama Air Group of the 25th Air Flotilla based at the Shortland Islands and shot it down from TF 11. The aircraft failed to send a report before it crashed, but when it didn't return to base the Japanese correctly assumed that it had been shot down by carrier aircraft.