 On the morning of 8 May , both sides located each other at about the same time and began launching their aircraft about 09 : 00 . The American dive bombers disabled Shōkaku 's flight deck with three hits , but the carrier was able to evade all of the torpedoes . Hidden by a rain squall , Zuikaku escaped detection and was not attacked . In return , the Japanese aircraft badly damaged Lexington with two torpedo and two bomb hits and scored a single bomb hit on Yorktown . The torpedo hits on Lexington cracked one of her avgas tanks , and leaking vapor caused a series of large explosions that caused her to be scuttled . 
