U.S. aircraft carrier collides with large cargo ship in Mediterranean Sea

WASHINGTON - A nuclear-powered U.S. Navy aircraft carrier was involved in an overnight collision with a cargo ship, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The USS Harry S. Truman collided with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M in the Mediterranean Sea. There were no reports of injuries to any U.S. Navy personnel and the Navy says the carrier was never in danger.

Carrier collision

What we know:

According to the Navy, the USS Truman collided with the Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time on February 12 off the coast of Port Said, Egypt.

There were no reports of flooding or injuries on the USS Truman, and the Navy says the ship’s propulsion plants – which are nuclear-powered – are in a "safe and stable condition."

What we don't know:

The cause and circumstances of the collision were not immediately clear; an investigation is underway. There was also no immediate word on the status of the Besiktas-M and its crew.

What is the USS Harry S. Truman?

File: Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) transits the Atlantic Ocean on June 25, 2015. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class K. H. Anderson/Released)

The USS Harry S. Truman – Navy designation CVN 75 – is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier commissioned in 1998. The ship is 1,092 feet long with a 252-foot-wide flight deck and can carry up to 90 planes and helicopters.

The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East in support of Operation Prosperity Guardian, defending ships against Houthi rebels. It had just completed a port call in Souda Bay, Greece.

What is the Besiktas-M?

According to MarineTraffic.com, Besiktas-M is a bulk cargo carrier that sails under the Panamanian flag. The ship is 618 feet long and 105 feet wide and is capable of carrying nearly 30,000 tons of cargo.

Marine tracking data showed the ship had just cleared the Suez Canal and was reportedly headed from Port Said to a destination in Romania.

Previous U.S. Navy ship collisions

The backstory:

The U.S. Navy has been working to improve safety and technology after two separate at-sea collisions in 2017 claimed the lives of 17 sailors.

On June 17, 2017, the destroyer Fitzgerald collided with the container ship ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan, leaving seven sailors dead. A month later, 10 sailors were killed and 48 injured when the destroyer John S. McCain hit the tanker Alnic MC in the Singapore Strait.

The following year, Naval Surface Force Pacific established the Human Factors Oversight Council to identify and fix the factors that led to both incidents, which included crew fatigue and insufficient oversight.

Six U.S. Navy surface ships have been sunk by accident since World War II, but none since 1968. 

This is a developing story. Stay with FOX for more.