1 of 4 | The USS Harry S. Truman was damaged in a view from the ship’s rigid-hull inflatable boat following a collision Wednesday with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt. Photo by MC1 Cody Beam/U.S. Navy |
License PhotoFeb. 13 (UPI) — A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier collided with a Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel near near the Suez Canal in the Mediterranean Seaon on Wednesday night, according to a statement from the military.
The Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman, a 100,000 ton aircraft carrier, was traveling in the near Port Said, Egypt, when it collided with the Besiktas-M, a 53,000 ton merchant ship, at 11:46 p.m. local time, a statement from The Navy’s sixth fleet said.
There were no injuries reported, nor did either ship report taking on any water, the Navy said. The Harry S. Truman is capable of carrying as many as 5,000 sailors.
The Navy reported that the carrier’s propulsion systems were not affected and were said to be in a safe and stable condition.
An official told CNN the Suez Canal is typically densely packed with ships.
“There is not a lot of room for maneuvering in a restricted seaway and both ships require about one nautical mile to stop,” former US Navy captain Carl Schuster, an instructor at Hawaii Pacific University, told CNN.
The Besiktas-M, a 617-foot long bulk carrier, had exited the Suez Canal and was heading to Romania, according to tracking website Marine Traffic.
It previously collided with M/V Common Spirit in August 2016 in the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong, according to the ship tracking site Vessel Tracker.
Truman deployed in September 2024 from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
The Truman was in Souda Bay, Greece, last week for a “working port visit” after two months of combat operations in the Central Command region, a Navy statement said.
The aircraft carrier is part of a mission that has been operating in the Red Sea since the middle of last December, dispatched to stop attacks launched by Houthis from Yemen on commercial vessels in the critical transportation waterway. The Houthis have claimed their attacks are in support of Hamas.
Wednesday’s collision with the merchant vessel remains under investigation, the Navy said.
The Truman, a 1,100-foot-long carrier, was heading toward the canal, tracking data indicates.
There are 11 aircraft carriers in the US Navy fleet.
The USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned on July 25, 1998, at Naval Station Norfolk.
