After this second fallout episode, the task force decided to abandon the attempt to reenter Bikini Lagoon that day. The major units and those vessels with TG 7.1 and TG 7.5 personnel aboard were sent west to Enewetak to offload these people and to prepare for a return to Bikini and the be- ginning of operations afloat there. The USS Belle Grove remained south of Bikini to reenter the following day if possible. The cloud-tracking aircraft Wilson 2 had begun its flight 2 hours after detonation and had been scheduled to fly for 3 hours in a racetrack course 50 nmi (93 km) west of Bikini to warn if the fallout was headed westward. It was then to fly eastward searching for the cloud in a sector bounded by the bearings 55° to 85° through the burst point. Owing to some confusion at the Air Operations Control (AOC) Center, Wilson 2 was held to the west of Bikini for 6 hours. A portion of its flight path is shown in Figure 62 along with the reconstructed fallout at approximately this time. In its entire flight, Wilson 2 recorded only one radiation reading of any significance, and this was at 1550, 150 nmi zero. (278 km) at a 60° bearing from ground The aircraft flew at 10,000 feet (3.05 km) throughout its flight. At 1553, the P2V aircraft dispatched to replace the transient shipping search P2V aircraft that had been forced to return because of contamination picked up the desired heading to continue the sweep centered on the 65° bearing. In attempting to pick up the heading :lightly earlier, the P2V had encountered radiation at 160 nmi (296 km) bearing 85° from the burst point. This had forced the P2V to swing east to pick up the search vector farther out from ground zero. This plane, based at Kwajalein, was coming from the south toward the 65° bearing when it encountered the radi- ation. These flights were flown at a much lower altitude (1,000 feet; 305 Meters) than the Wilson flights. The remainder of the flight was apparently uneventful until the plane sighted the USS Patapsco on a course of 30° (Reference 16). The P2V con- tacted the Patapsco advising an “easterly” course so as to avoid the 65° bearing. The Patapsco accepted this advice, leaving a course that would 218