An old video showing a fire aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard is being shared on social media with the false claim that it depicts an Iranian attack on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
BOOM found that the footage shows a massive blaze that broke out aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) while it was docked for maintenance at Naval Base San Diego, California. The fire began on July 12, 2020, while the ship was undergoing maintenance at its homeport, and is unrelated to the ongoing conflict with Iran.
CBS News reported on March 12, that a vessel linked to Iran sailed too close to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, prompting U.S. forces to open fire on the vessel. Two U.S. destroyers, USS Spruance and USS Michael Murphy, are deployed with the carrier strike group, which is currently operating in the Arabian Sea as part of U.S. military operations targeting Iran. However, it remains unclear whether the aircraft carrier was actually hit, with Iran claiming that the USS Abraham Lincoln was struck while the United States denying it.
The Claim
The 26 seconds video is being shared on X claiming that a leaked clip has surfaced online showing an attack on USS Abraham Lincoln.
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What We Found:
1) Video from July 2020
We broke the video into key-frames and ran a reverse image search using Google Lens; the search results showed that the video dates back to 2020.
The original video of the incident was posted on US Navy's official YouTube channel with the caption, "USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) Firefighting Efforts, July 13th Part Two" on July 14, 2020.
The caption stated that helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 3 were involved in firefighting operations aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6). It added that on the morning of July 12, 2020, a fire broke out on the ship while it was moored pier-side at Naval Base San Diego, following which base and shipboard firefighters responded to contain the blaze.