Newly widened. Previously I don’t think a carrier would fit.
Wonder what kind of security prep was done. It seems like the carrier was a sitting duck in the canal.
Actually the Suez Canal was used by carriers up till the Six Day War thereabouts and then suspended until 1981. USS America CV 66 was the first carrier to transit the Suez again in 1981. Technically before that we really didn't have to have it because we had sufficient number of carriers. However all east coast carriers as far as I know or rather the super carriers from Forestall on made the transit around the Horn to get to S.E. Asia during Nam after the six day war.
Carriers went through the old canal. The flight deck actually hung over sand. I took the trip through the ditch many times.