The tragedies of the past had not been lost on the Navy and they did everything possible to ensure there were no recurrences.
On the other hand, the Navy did not want to lose the opportunity to publicize its new aircraft and their capabilities. Even before the squadron arrived at San Fransisco, the flight was being discussed in the press.
For news of the takeoff, see the link at bottom.
The P2Y-1s were so new that the news clip above from December 26, 1933 still showed the the squadron's Martin PM-1 flying boats, which it had replaced with PY2s in April 1933. The map shows the distance as 2,408 statue miles, while the press articles tend to state the distance as 2,100 miles without noting the distance is in nautical miles. The distance was often printed without noting if the distance was in statue or nautical miles, leading to confusion.
The above clip, published on Janaury 6, 1934, still has the flight taking off on January 12, showing the rapid decision that was made to move up the flight to January 10 in order to miss a possible storm approaching Hawaii from the West.
Link for news of the takeoff: News of the Take Off and Flight
