This post has been updated with additional details.
Three curious French police officers are facing disciplinary measures after accidentally shipping out on carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) when it left after a port visit to Marseilles on Tuesday.
The municipal police officers – who did not speak English– came aboard the carrier right before the ship left Marseille, France, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday.
The officers were providing security for the carrier while it was in port and were credentialed to be aboard but not on duty and wanted a last minute tour, a second source told USNI News.
Unable to turn back to the pier, Ike’s crew had the officers leave on the harbor tug after about an hour aboard, the official told USNI News.
Caroline Pozmentier, a security assistant for the city of Marseille, “said that these policemen had ‘nothing to do on the aircraft carrier’,” read a translation of a report from the France Bleu Provence newspaper.
“She promised that the three agents ‘will be subject to disciplinary sanctions.’”
The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is returning after a seven-month deployment supporting the U.S.-led effort to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The strike group is due back at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. by the end of the month.
