US navy carrier collides with cargo ship near Suez Canal

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The nuclear aircraft carrier Us Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision with a merchant ship near Egypt in the Mediterranean on Wednesday evening, as a spokesman for the marine announced on Thursday.

accidents at sea: background to the collision

The exact causes of the collision between the US warship and the Panama caggly merchant ship Besiktas-M are still unclear. The spokesman stated that the collision did not cause a flood on board the Truman and the nuclear drive systems were not affected. No injuries were reported on both ships, although the merchant ship has suffered some damage, reported an official from the Navy.

Investigations into the collision

An investigation is in progress to determine how the collision came about. However, the official pointed out that the area near the Suez Canal is usually very close to ships. The Besiktas-M, an 188 meter long mass freight, had left the Suez Canal and was on the way to Romania, as the Tracking website Marine shows traffic. The Truman, which is 335 meters long and belongs to the Nimitz class, set out towards the channel.

shipping and accessibility of the Suez Canal

The marine expert Sal Mercliano, professor at Campbell University, explained in a conversation of the X Spaces that the area where the collision took place near an anchorage in front of the Egyptian Port Said, which included around 100 ships. Former US Marine captain Carl Schuster, lecturer at Hawaii Pacific University, said that such conditions leave little scope for mistakes. "There is not much room for maneuvers in a restricted sea area, and both ships need about a nautical mile to stop," noted Schuster.

The USS Harry S. Truman: missions and backgrounds

Last week, Truman was in Souda Bay, Greece, for a “visit to the working harbor”, after it had carried out combat operations in the central command area for two months, as a message from the Navy explains. During this period she carried out several attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen and started Air attacks against Isis in Somalia.

rarity of collisions between military and merchant ships

The Truman is one of 11 aircraft carriers in the US Navy fleet. Accidents in which these huge ships and merchant ships are involved are rare because the wearers normally travel accompanied by a series of destroyers. Ships that enter the Suez Canal have to drive in a single row, which makes them more susceptible to collisions, according to the experts.

historical collisions

The last known collision of a US carrier with a merchant ship occurred on July 22, 2004, as a Dow, a sailing ship, which was common in the Middle East, that former USS John F. Kennedy rammed in the Persian Golf, reports the Maritime website Usni news .

In 2017, two US Marine destroyers were involved in fatal collisions. Seven seafarers died when the USS Fitzgerald rammed a cargo ship in front of Japan in June of that year, and two months later, ten seafarers died when the USS John S. McCain collided with a tanker in front of Singapore and Malaysia.