A former Soviet aircraft carrier, the Minsk, which had been converted into a Chinese tourist attraction, caught fire during renovations in a waterway near Shanghai over the weekend. The carrier, anchored in a lagoon near the Yangtze River in Nantong, Jiangsu province, experienced a blaze that broke out on Friday afternoon and was extinguished about 24 hours later.
Images on social media depicted thick smoke and large flames burning on the carrier's deck, with subsequent pictures revealing extensive damage to the ship's superstructure and charred metal on its flank below the main deck. Fortunately, there were no casualties reported, and the cause of the accident is currently under investigation by local fire officials.
The Minsk, once part of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, was the second of four Kiev-class aircraft carriers built by the Soviet Union between 1970 and 1987. With a displacement of about 42,000 tons, the 896-feet (273 meters) ship could carry a dozen fighter jets and an equal number of helicopters.
After serving in the Soviet Pacific Fleet until 1991, the Minsk became property of the Russian Navy following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russia retired the ship in 1993, and it was later sold to a South Korean company for scrap along with its sister ship, the Novorossiysk.
Environmental groups opposed the presence of the Minsk in South Korea, leading to its sale to a Chinese company. The ship eventually became the centerpiece of the Minsk World theme park in Shenzhen in 2000, which faced financial difficulties and closed in 2016. The Minsk was then moved to its current location in Nantong.
One of the Minsk's sister ships, the Kiev, is now an attraction at the Binhai Aircraft Carrier Theme Park in Tianjin, China. Of the four Kiev-class carriers built by the Soviets, only the Baku remains in service, having been sold to India in 2004 and commissioned into the Indian Navy as the INS Vikramaditya in 2013.
