[7][8] Gray together with Charles Vaughn then flew it to Anacostia in Maryland where on 3 March in the presence of Juan Trippe it was christened Yankee Clipper by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with a bottle containing water from all seven seas in front of approximately 3,000 onlookers with numerous more listening to a live radio broadcast.

[19][7] On 24 June 1939 the Yankee Clipper departed on the inaugural flight carrying airmail via the Northern route from New York to Southampton via Newfoundland and Foynes, returning back to the United States on 1 July.

[20][21] Departing from Port Washington on 8 July under the command of Captain Laporte the Yankee Clipper made her first flight carrying passengers on the Northern route from New York to England, travelling via Shedian in New Brunswick, Botwood in Newfoundland and Foynes in Ireland before terminating in Southampton.

[23] On 13 October Yankee Clipper left Port Washington for Lisbon with 35 passengers (all but four alighting in Bermuda) and 1,385 pounds (628 kg) of mail, setting a record for the eastbound crossing.

The Yankee Clipper completed the 200th transatlantic crossing by a Pan American flying boat when it landed at La Guardia Field on 4 August 1940 with 35 passengers onboard from Lisbon.

Sullivan claimed that the nose slowly dropped for no explainable reason which had not alarmed him until the attitude reached 400 feet (120 m), at which point he made a left descending turn and attempted to make emergency landing.

[2] He couldn’t explain when asked by the accident investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) why he hadn’t opted to increase power to pull the plane up to a higher attitude and make a new approach.

In exhaustive flight tests in April over Long Island Sound, with Sullivan aboard, they confirmed that, even if that part had failed prior to the crash, it would not have affected the flying boat ability to be safely flown.

[2] Among the dead were writer and war correspondent Ben Robertson and singer, Tamara Drasin who was among a number of USO performers travelling on the flying boat to entertain troops.

The co-pilot, John Curtis Burn, who broke his back in the crash, fashioned a makeshift raft from portions of the wrecked plane to help keep himself and Froman afloat until they were rescued.

Jane Froman and Gypsy Markoff continued legal action against Pan American using the services of lawyer Harry A. Gair, a pioneer in the field of aviation crash litigation.

Under the compensatory provisions of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act a private law passed in 1958 awarded Jane Froman and Gypsy Markoff $23,403.58 each, and Jean Rosen (the widow of Roy Rognan), $24,625.30.