The US Navy is investigating whether sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford deliberately started the fire that tore through the aircraft carrier's main laundry spaces on 12 March — a blaze that took more than 30 hours to extinguish and left over 600 crew members without proper sleeping quarters. The carrier, the most expensive warship ever built, is now diverting to Souda Naval Base in Crete for repairs and a formal investigation into the incident, according to sources with direct knowledge of the planned port call.
The investigation explicitly includes the possibility of deliberate sabotage by crew members, with one theory suggesting the fire was intentionally set to interrupt the carrier's lengthy and repeatedly extended mission. The Ford has now entered its tenth month of deployment, with crew members told their assignment will likely stretch into May — twice the length of a normal aircraft carrier deployment.
