The American air crews armed their weapons when the opposing aircraft were less than away and closing in on each other at a rate of . At a distance of about , the lead F-14 pilot, Commander Joseph Connelly, made a radio call to the carrier group's air warfare commander to see if there was any additional information in regard to the MiG-23s. There was no response to his call. At 12:01:20 and a range of , Enwright fired an AIM-7; he surprised Connelly, who did not expect to see a missile accelerate away from his aircraft. The missile failed to track toward its target. At about , Enwright launched a second AIM-7, but it also failed to hit its target.