He had forgotten to deactivate the app Strava, which tracks training. That’s why it was easy to see where the sailor and therefore the Aircraft carrier and flagship of the French Navy was in the Mediterranean. A report from the newspaper “Le Monde” exposed this dangerous mistake in the middle of the war against Iran.

Sailor shared aircraft carrier position with run on deck

The young naval officer had shared a 36-minute running workout on his public Strava profile. The Strava app is used by 120 million people. It allows runners and cyclists to record and show their training online.

Data available to Le Monde shows that at around 10:30 a.m. on March 13, the sailor recorded a run of more than 7 kilometers around the ship’s 260-meter-long deck using his smartwatch. The data suggests that the aircraft carrier was located northwest of Cyprus, about 100 kilometers off the Turkish coast.

Complete route visible via profile

The incident is not an isolated case. The sailor’s publicly accessible Strava profile made it possible to track the whereabouts of the French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” for weeks. The recorded running routes placed the ship off the Cotentin Peninsula in late February, then briefly in Copenhagen and northwest of Cyprus in mid-March.

“Le Monde” confirmed the latter information through satellite images that became available a short time later of this region of the eastern Mediterranean: the 262-meter-long carrier is clearly visible, and its position largely coincides with the sailor’s GPS track. On the sailor’s Strava profile you can always see cycles in the middle of the sea.

Significant security risk after Iran strikes

Along with the aircraft carrier, at least three French Navy warships and a supply ship are in the region. France is already planning a new mega aircraft carrier. On March 3rd, Emmanuel Macron personally ordered the operation. At that time the only French aircraft carrier was at NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea and should stay there until May. On March 6, it was announced that he would sail through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Although it is Use of the “Charles de Gaulle” not top secret. But publishing the exact position data is definitely a security risk, as Iran and its allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah repeatedly fire rockets at Western military bases. Two French bases have already been hit in this context. One French soldier was killed and six were injured. The attack by the USA and Israel against Iran had already been going on for around two weeks at the time of the deck run.