Giant half built aircraft carrier pulled through Bosporus.

Описание: (1 Nov 2001)

1. Wide shot carrier
2. Close up bow of carrier
3. Mid shot carrier
4. Two shots people watching from water's edge
5. Mid shot carrier with tug boats
6. Dinghy on water
7. Two aerial shots carrier
8. Carrier approaching bridge
9. Carrier sailing under bridge
10. Carrier sailing past bridge
11. Two wide shots carrier
12. Carrier with tug boats
13. Aerial shot Blue Mosque in Istanbul
14. Wide shot carrier
15. People watching from water's edge
16. Close up carrier's bow
17. Two shots people at water's edge
18. Bow of carrier sailing past Blue Mosque
19. Bow of carrier at sunset

STORYLINE:

Turkey has let a half-built aircraft carrier pass through the Bosporus after sixteen months of negotiations with the ship's owners.

Tugboats hauled the carrier through the strait, after the ship had spent the 16 months circling the Black Sea while its Chinese owners sought clearance from Turkey to pass through.

The operation forced Turkey to shut down the narrow waterway, one of the world's busiest, to other boats wanting to travel the sole sea route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Six tugboats towed the engineless, rudderless Varyag on its six-hour passage through the Bosporus.

A total of 11 boats were in the convoy, including hospital ships, firefighters and rescue vessels.

On shore, emergency rescue units followed the carrier on both sides of the strait, and a military helicopter hovered above monitoring the grey giant.

The head of Istanbul's shore security and marine rescue service, Hucum Tulgar afterwards called it a successful operation.

The 309-metre (1,020-foot) Varyag is bound for the South China Sea.

A Macau-based firm bought the ship from the qUkraine with plans to turn it into a floating, leisure centre.

But Turkey, fearing an accident, had refused to let the ship through.

Turkey only relented after months of negotiations, weeks of technical preparations and anxious days studying weather forecasts.

Turkish officials were afraid that the Bosporus currents could spin the Varyag around and run it ashore, blocking the strait to all shipping for an unforeseeable period.

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