US aircraft carrier collides with merchant ship in Mediterranean

New York [US], February 14: The US Navy said on February 13 that the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with the cargo ship Besiktas-M near the Egyptian port city in the Mediterranean.
The US Navy website USNI News reported that the collision occurred at around 11:46 a.m. on February 12 (local time), near the Egyptian city of Port Said. US Navy 6th Fleet spokesman Timothy Gorman said that the collision did not cause damage to the aircraft carrier. "We have not recorded any water spillage or injuries. The propulsion system is safe and stable. The incident is currently under investigation," Mr. Gorman said.
Before arriving in the Mediterranean, the US aircraft carrier had been operating in the Red Sea, with the mission of protecting shipping lanes in the region from attacks by Houthi forces in Yemen. The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group arrived in the Middle East in December 2024. After several weeks of combat operations, the aircraft carrier and its escort warships left the Red Sea and made a port call in the Mediterranean in early February.
It is unclear whether the US Navy ship was returning to the Middle East when the collision occurred. According to shipping data, the Besiktas-M is a 53,000-ton, nearly 200-meter-long Panama-flagged cargo ship.Collisions involving US Navy vessels are relatively rare, but there are precedents. In 2004, the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy collided with and sank a fishing boat. The incident led to the removal of the ship's captain.
USS Harry S. Truman is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1998. The ship has a displacement of more than 100,000 tons and a length of about 333 m. The ship can carry 90 aircraft of various types.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper