 No radio reports of any emergencies were ever received from the crew of the flight, and the fate of the flight was not known until about nine hours after its last known radio transmission, when the plane, if it had still been flying, would have exhausted its fuel.Under the assumption that the plane could have survived a controlled landing on the ocean surface, the United States Coast Guard launched a massive search for the plane and any potential survivors.The week-long hunt became the largest search and rescue operation in the Pacific Ocean at the time.