The survivors of the USS Indianapolis, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945, were in the water for more than four days. Because of communications errors and other problems, the ship was not reported missing when it failed to arrive in Leyte Gulf as scheduled on July 31. The survivors were discovered by accident on August 2, when they were spotted by a passing U.S. naval aircraft. By that time only 316 of the nearly 1,200 crew members remained alive and were rescued.