An investigation is underway after a US aircraft carrier smashed into a large vessel in the Mediterranean.
USS Harry Truman reportedly struck a large merchant vessel just before midday on Wednesday, February 12 off the coast of Egypt.
As the Mirror reports, a statement was issued by the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet. The statement reads: “The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea.”
The incident was a rare collision of two large vessels. The 100,000-tonne aircraft carrier is understood to have hit the 53,000-tonne merchant ship Besiktas-M, a Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel.
There have been no reports of injuries and there is no reported flooding aboard the aircraft carrier.
The Harry S. Truman has an estimated crew of about 5,000 sailors. It is also powered by two- nuclear reactors as well as four propulsion systems, according to ABC News.
Cmdr. Timothy Gorman, a spokesperson for the US Sixth Fleet, added the collision did not endanger the Truman. “There are no reports of flooding or injuries,” he added.
“The propulsion plants are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition. The incident is under investigation. More information will be released as it becomes available.”
The vessel had been recently operating in the Red Sea where it had been deployed as part of protecting shipping lanes from attacks by Houthi rebels operating in Yemen. It arrived a naval base in the Greek island of Crete earlier this week.
The stop in Greece was a rare pause in operations as it has been near-constantly in operations to defend shipping lanes using the Suez Canal. Houthis have carried out attacks in the region in support of terrorist organisation Hamas, which had recently been at war with Israel.
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