Originally Posted by
WillFlyForCheese
So - if you look closely at the higher res photos - the explosions appear to have been catastrophic. You can see buckling in the aft deck areas - and it appears the roof of the helo hangar is also buckled, below the rear radar dome. Still can’t tell if the line in the hull aft of the missile bay is smoke, or actually a break in the hull. There certainly appears to be creasing of the hull in that area.
it may simply be that this catastrophic explosion resulted in the death of many of the crew - with a significant number caught below deck and killed by the pressure wave and those that survived the initial explosion overtaken by fire and smoke.
I would not be surprised if she broke in two around that creased area.
Good catch, and nice to see a high-res version of this picture.
Checking further, it looks like, the helo desk does have a big hole in it, with, as it seems, penetration from the top and a subsequent big explosion underneath the deck, maybe even 1 or 2 decks lower, inside the ship. Not to mention the crumbling and burn damage visible all over the port side on the deck below the helo deck.
Could it be Neptune Nr 2 did penetrate the helo deck and just blew up the whole inside of the stern section ? Given there will be not that many explosives and/or fuel around there, the only igniting stuff would be the neptune warhead itself with maybe some residual neptune fuel.
This could certainly explain the damage to the rear part of the ship and in front of the helo hangar, the structure below the rear radar dome itself. That part seems to be completely blown up from the inside out.