Simultaneous searches trigger the battle

The Japanese reversed course at about 02:50 on 26 October, and a radar-equipped Catalina spotted them roughly twenty minutes later. Its report reached Kinkaid much later, with accounts placing receipt between 05:12 and about 05:20. That uncertainty of a few minutes matters less here than the delay itself, because both fleets already had scouts airborne. By about 05:00 the forces were roughly 200 nautical miles apart, well inside the approximate 300-mile carrier search-and-strike range used in the comparison. American scouts sighted Nagumo's main body between about 06:40 and 07:00, while Japanese scouts found Hornet's task force within minutes of the American sighting. Both sides then rushed to launch their strikes.