Photo shows consequences of the US ship fire in 1967, not the Houthi attack

“Aircraft carrier Eisenhower after being attacked by Houthis’ missiles. Didn’t the US say it wasn’t attacked? Did they bomb themselves?” reads a post in simplified Chinese on X (formerly Twitter) on June 2, 2024.

The photo, which has been viewed more than 300,000 times, appears to show workers repairing the badly damaged flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

The video circulated shortly after Yemeni Houthi rebels said they launched a missile attack on the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea on May 31, 2024. Washington has not confirmed that the aircraft carrier was the target.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, have carried out numerous drone and missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November, expressing solidarity with the Palestinians in the face of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement on X that the move was in response to 16 people killed and more than 40 injured in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, including an unspecified number of civilians.

The death toll announced by the Houthis, which AFP could not independently verify, makes the attacks the deadliest since the US and Britain launched their campaign against the disruption of the vital trade route in January.

The same photo was also shared elsewhere on X here and here, on Facebook here and here, and on Weibo.

Washington reportedly denied claims that the ship was damaged or hit (archived link).

The photo actually shows the aftermath of a deadly fire that broke out aboard another US aircraft carrier in 1967.

Fire on the USS Forrestal

A reverse image search on Google revealed that the photo was published on the Getty Images website (archived link).

The caption read: “UNSPECIFIED – 1967: Repair crews work to repair the damaged deck of the USS Forrestal CVA-59 after a fatal fire in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. (Photo by Dick Swanson/Getty Images).”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the mistakenly shared photo (left) and the Getty Images photo (right):

The fire on the flight deck of the USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, killed 134 sailors and pilots, injured 161, and destroyed 21 aircraft, according to an article on the US Navy website (archived link).

AFP has debunked other false claims about US ships being damaged by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea here and here.