Aircraft Carrier in the Mediterranean?

[Deeply Mad]

I've just had a conversation with a colleague just back from holiday in Malta. While flying back (from Malta to the UK) Tuesday evening he saw a carrier through the clouds for a moment. Is there anyway to find out which carrier it was?

He described it as being rectangular so not a Nimitz class. Any idea?

[nice1two]

the french Charles de Gaulle maybe?

Possibly moving to support the mali campaign?

[Fishtigua]

There are helicopter assault ships that look rectangle, could that be it? The Americans, British, French and Italians all have them. All operate in the Med.

[LotusOmega375D]

Carriers used to be relatively common sight in the Med when I was a nipper in the 1970s. I remember playing on a beach whilst the USS Saratoga (Forrestal class, 6th Fleet) was anchored off-shore. I have vivid memories of a human chain of US sailors helping to load its tender with boxes of fresh fruit.

[LHRFlightman]

As a 12 year old my family were treated to a full day onboard the USS Independence sometime in the late 70's, which was on a Friendship visit in the Med.

we even had a roast dinner in the canteen,

I got to sit in many different aircraft, was asked politely not to take a photograph of the radar of a F4( I think ) and got to sit in the Capt chair.

Lovely.

[FourWheelDrift]

Fishtigua said:

There are helicopter assault ships that look rectangle, could that be it? The Americans, British, French and Italians all have them. All operate in the Med.

And the Spanish have 2 as well, one of them the Juan Carlos II and the 2 Italian ships Cavour & Giuseppe Garibaldi are very square looking and both resemble an American Tarawa or Wasp class LHA from a distance if not a big as the US ships.

[IanMorewood]

Probably one of the Italian Harrier Carriers or someone else shifting assets east via Suez.