CNN showed the aftermath of the incident on the USS Gerald R. Ford
The American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford sustained significantly more severe damage during operations in the Red Sea region than the U.S. Navy officially reported following a fire in March. Footage obtained by CNN journalists showed extensive damage inside the ship and issues that temporarily affected its combat readiness.
The fire aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, the most advanced U.S. aircraft carrier, in March caused significantly more damage than the U.S. Navy initially acknowledged, and new footage from CNN journalists revealed the true extent of the incident inside the ship. Initially, the U.S. Navy stated that the fire had been quickly contained, two sailors had sustained minor injuries, and the aircraft carrier itself remained fully operational. But footage released by journalists paints a very different picture—serious damage to the ship’s interior.
The video shows the crew’s living quarters destroyed, with only charred metal frames remaining of the beds, a damaged ceiling, traces of soot and ash, and severed wires. One of the sailors who helped put out the fire admitted that the situation was critical. “I seriously thought we were going to lose the ship,” he told CNN.
According to crew members, one of the reasons the fire spread so quickly was a malfunction in the ship’s fire suppression system, which was supposed to automatically contain the blaze. “It shouldn’t have come to this. The fire suppression system built into the ship was supposed to put it out,” one of the sailors noted. The crew had to fight the flames on their own for about 30 hours, after which they managed to stabilize the situation and prevent the fire from reigniting. As a result of the incident, about 600 service members temporarily lost access to their sleeping quarters.
A senior U.S. official cited by CNN stated that official Navy reports downplayed the scale of the incident, and the fire actually affected the ship’s combat capabilities. After the incident, the aircraft carrier remained at sea for some time but was later forced to call at a port in Greece for partial repairs. The USS Gerald R. Ford, commissioned in 2017, is considered the newest and most technologically advanced U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and a key element of the U.S. naval presence in various regions of the world.
According to CNN, the ship was also under constant threat of potential missile strikes and drone attacks during operations in the region, which further increased the risks to the crew and the ship’s systems. This was reported by CNN, which obtained exclusive video footage from aboard the ship.
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