Sinking an Aircraft Carrier

Overview

A 30,000-tonne aircraft carrier is designed to function in the heat of battle and built to be capable of withstanding a great deal of punishment. This documentary follows the efforts of a team of engineers and demolition experts to sink one. Commissioned in 1950, the USS Oriskany was one of the flagships of the Pacific fleet, deployed in action during both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Even such a leviathan of the seas has only a finite life-span, however, and the carrier was decommissioned in 1976. The ship lay berthed for almost 30 years, before a decision was taken to sink the hulk for use as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. The operation involved the most explosives ever used in a controlled marine demolition.