Pilots rose early to take advantage of fair weather before the typical Honolulu winds kicked up on that Sunday morning, 75 years ago. It was a beautiful day to fly, until fabric-covered airplanes were suddenly in a desperate struggle for survival among hundreds of warplanes converging on Pearl Harbor. Among the first Americans killed on that day of infamy were three men in a pair of Piper Cubs, along with the owner of the flying school where they had trained, who was himself shot dead on the ground when a fighter strafed Honolulu’s civilian airport.
Source: aopaCivilian pilots under fire at Pearl Harbor