Increasingly, in the later phases of the Okinawa campaign, kamikaze planes turned back and returned to land at their bases. The pilots reported baffling engine malfunctions, or claimed that they had been unable to locate enemy ships. Others ditched their planes at sea, near islands between Kyushu and Okinawa, hoping to get ashore and survive until the end of the war. Pilots were known to sneak out to the flight line in darkness, on the night before a scheduled departure, and sabotage their own planes. They might simply unscrew the gas cap, intending to run low on fuel, an excuse to turn back.
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