On Wednesday evening, the aircraft carrier “Harry S. Truman” collided with the bulker “Besiktas-M” in the Mediterranean.
According to the US Navy, no one was injured in the accident. The collision, which occurred off the Egyptian port of Port Said, is currently under investigation.
The damage to the aircraft carrier is above the ship’s waterline, the aircraft on board were not damaged. According to AiS data, the “Besiktas-M” had only recently passed through the Suez Canal and was en route to the Romanian port of Constanta in the Black Sea. The 189 m long and 32 m wide bulker was built in 2003 and sails under the flag of Panama. The owner of the ship is currently unknown. However, this is not the first time that the “Besiktas-M” has been involved in an accident: In August 2016, it collided with the bulker “Common Spirit” off Bangladesh.
First aircraft carrier collision since 2004
It is the first collision between an aircraft carrier and a merchant ship since 2004, when the former “John F. Kennedy” collided with a dhow (a small sailing ship) on July 22 during a night-time helicopter operation in the Persian Gulf. The commander of the aircraft carrier was relieved after an initial investigation.
The “Harry S. Truman” was deployed from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia in September 2024. After exercises in the North Sea, the battle group joined the US Central Command in December. Together with the destroyer “Jason Dunham”, it was anchored off the US Naval Support Activity’s Souda Bay in Greece last week. Whether the destroyer was underway at the time of the collision with the aircraft carrier has not yet been made public.
