US Navy aircraft carrier collides with merchant ship near Egypt's Suez Canal

The US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision with a Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel, Besiktas-M, near the Suez Canal.

The Navy confirmed the incident but the cause of the collision remains unclear.

A Navy spokesperson stated that the collision did not result in flooding aboard the Truman and that its nuclear propulsion systems were unaffected. There were no injuries reported on either vessel, although the Besiktas-M, a 617-foot bulk carrier, sustained some damage. The incident is under investigation.

The collision occurred in a busy part of the Mediterranean Sea, near Egypt’s Port Said. Marine traffic data shows that the Besiktas-M had recently exited the Suez Canal and was en route to Romania, while the Harry S. Truman, a 1,100-foot-long Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, was headed toward the canal.

Marine expert Sal Mercogliano noted that the area around the anchorage off Port Said was crowded with around 100 ships at the time of the incident. Former US Navy Captain Carl Schuster highlighted the difficulty of maneuvering in such a restricted area, stating that both ships require approximately one nautical mile to stop, and any small navigation error could quickly put them in danger.

The Harry S. Truman had recently completed a series of combat operations in the Central Command region, including airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen and ISIS targets in Somalia. Prior to the collision, it was docked in Souda Bay, Greece, for a working port visit.

Accidents involving US aircraft carriers and commercial vessels are rare, given that carriers typically operate with a strike group of destroyers for protection. However, conditions near the Suez Canal, where ships must travel in single file, can increase the risk of collisions, according to maritime experts.

The last recorded incident involving a US carrier colliding with a merchant vessel occurred in July 2004, when the USS John F. Kennedy was struck by a dhow in the Persian Gulf. In 2017, two separate collisions between US Navy destroyers and commercial vessels resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors.