CNN has reported that newly obtained footage shows the fire that broke out on the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, last March during the war against Iran, was larger and more dangerous than what the US Navy had disclosed.
According to the exclusive video broadcast by CNN on Thursday evening, the flames completely engulfed the sailors' berthing compartments. The footage showed a destroyed ceiling with dangling wires and piles of ash on the compartment floors.
One sailor who was aboard the aircraft carrier told CNN: "I really thought we were going to lose the ship... either we fight or we die."
According to the sailor's account and a senior US official familiar with the incident, the fire suppression system had malfunctioned, forcing the sailors to extinguish the fire themselves.
The US Navy had issued a brief statement at the time of the incident, stating that the fire had been "contained" and that two sailors received medical treatment for "non-life-threatening injuries," while affirming that the aircraft carrier was "fully operational."
However, the senior official who spoke to CNN said that this statement downplayed the impact of the fire on the aircraft carrier, which was then in the Red Sea supporting US military operations against Iran, indicating that the incident had affected its operational capabilities.
CNN directed a new question to the US Navy spokesperson regarding the scale of the fire and the malfunction in the fire suppression system, to which he replied that "the investigation into the fire is ongoing."
The aircraft carrier's crew spent approximately 30 hours fighting the fire and removing its remnants to prevent the flames from reigniting. Approximately 600 sailors lost their personal berthing spaces due to the damage, according to what CNN previously reported.
For two full days, the Gerald Ford was unable to conduct any flight operations, according to what Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Darryl Caudle announced last April, and the carrier was forced to proceed to Greece to carry out temporary repairs.