Photo Gallery: USS John F. Kennedy arrives off South Padre Island for scrapping at Port of Brownsville

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The former USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) aircraft carrier arrived in the waters off South Padre Island around noon on Sunday.

The carrier left the Nay’s Philadelphia Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility on Jan. 16 under two to International Shipbreaking Ltd./EMR Brownsville at the Port of Brownsville.

The last conventionally powered supercarrier in the Navy fleet, “Big John” was commissioned in 1968 and decommissioned in 2007, when it was moved from Florida to Philadelphia.

ISL, which won the contract to scrap the JFK in 2021, originally expected to get the ship a year ago. For reasons the Navy has not shared, it is only now making the trip, under tow, by the offshore tug/supply vessel Laney Chouest. The estimated time of arrival at Brownsville is Jan. 28, making it a 12-day voyage.

The last decommissioned Navy carrier towed from Philadelphia to be scrapped at Brownsville, the former USS Forrestal, which arrived at the port in 2014, was 14 days in transit.