New photos show extensive damage inflicted on the USS Harry S. Truman after it collided with a merchant ship near the Suez Canal in Egyptian waters.
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier was photographed docked at a naval facility in Souda Bay on the island of Crete in Greece, where it was stationed for emergency repairs on Sunday.
Pictures show a large gash to the exterior starboard quarter of the near-1,100 foot-long, 100,000-ton, nuclear-powered vessel.
An exterior wall of two storage rooms, a maintenance space, a line handling space the area above the storage spaces and the fantail – the overhanging part of a ship's stern – were damaged in the collision, according to a statement by the Navy.
Structural engineers, naval architects and other personnel from the forward-deployed regional maintenance center and Norfolk Naval Shipyard are conducting a detailed assessment of the damage.
A repair plan is due to be implemented, though a timetable was not immediately available.
Despite the incident, the ship’s capacity for combat has not been affected, with flight operations being conducted since the accident late last Wednesday in the crowded waters of Port Said, Egypt, per the statement.
The propulsion system was still in working order after the incident, the Navy said. There were no reported injuries among its 5,000 crew members.
“While the ship is fully mission capable and the ship conducted flight operations following the collision, pulling into port for [emergency] repairs will enable the ship to continue deployment as scheduled,” Captain Dave Snowden, commanding officer of the Harry S. Truman, said in a statement on Sunday.
The Truman collided with the Besiktas-M: a 617-foot-long, 53,000-ton bulk carrier registered in Panama. Both ships were moving in the Mediterranean Sea when they collided.
The naval ship was awaiting to enter the Suez Canal to transit back into the Red Sea, the Navy said.
The merchant ship was also damaged, however, no injuries were reported on either vessel, according to the Navy.
From images of the Besiktas-M, its starboard bow appears to have collided with underneath the deck overhang on Truman's starboard quarter.
Before the incident, the Truman was in Souda Bay for a “working port visit” after two months of combat operations in the Central Command region, the statement said.
The Navy ship, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The wider strike group had been in constant operations, with activity slowing after Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas in mid-Janaury.
While the naval ship is being repaired, “the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group… units remain operational across geographic regions in support of their component commanders,” Rear Admiral Sean Bailey, commander of HSTCSG, said in the Navy’s statement.
“Our mission has not changed and we remain committed to responding to any challenge in this dynamic and global security environment.”
