US aircraft carrier collides with a ship in the Mediterranean Sea
The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a commercial vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Egypt, the Navy said Thursday. A Navy spokeswoman stated that there were no reports of casualties or floods as a result of the incident.
"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," a statement from the U.S Navy's Sixth Fleet said.
The incident featured an unusual collision of two big vessels: the 100,000-ton aircraft carrier and the 53,000-ton commercial vessel Besiktas-M, a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship.
The Truman is powered by two nuclear reactors and four propulsion systems, and according to the Sixth Fleet statement, the ship's propulsion plants were unaffected and were in "a safe and stable condition."
The aircraft carrier and its strike group have been patrolling in the Red Sea since mid-December as part of a campaign to counter Houthi rebel strikes on commercial boats traversing the critical waterway.
The carrier had landed at a naval port in Crete earlier this week, providing a rare reprieve for the strike group, which has been on continual operations since Israel's ceasefire with Hamas went into force in mid-January.
