Six Japanese planes suddenly approached the formation from the south at about 10,000 feet and all the ships opened fire as soon as they flew within range. An enemy plane, tentatively (and possibly erroneously) identified as a Nakajima J1N1 Gekko made a run on "Kitkun Bay" on her starboard bow. The Irving delayed releasing its torpedo and the ship's forward starboard guns poured fire into the plane, and at 100 yards one of its engines began smoking. The attacker dropped the torpedo but it missed the carrier by about 25 feet since the captain had her in a sharp turn. As the Irving crossed the bow its tail gunner attempted to strafe the ship but several 20 millimeter shells sliced into him. Additional 40 millimeter rounds hit the plane and it burst into flames, rose vertically for about 1,000 feet, nosed over and plunged into the sea in a "spectacular" splash.