 At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific in December 1941, the "Pacific Clipper" was en route to New Zealand from San Francisco.Rather than risk flying back to Honolulu and being shot down by Japanese fighters, it was directed to fly west to New York.Starting on December 8, 1941 at Auckland, New Zealand, the "Pacific Clipper" covered over 31,500 miles (50,694 km) via such exotic locales as Surabaya, Karachi, Bahrain, Khartoum and Leopoldville.