The ship continued patrolling without incident except for a hangar fire that killed one aircraft mechanic on 20 September.
A hangar fire broke out on 2 April that destroyed 11 aircraft and killed one crewman, but failed to cause any serious damage to the ship.
A hangar fire damaged a No. 192 Squadron RAF Comet 2R beyond repair on 13 September 1957, and three Middle East Airlines Comet 4Cs were destroyed by Israeli troops at Beirut, Lebanon on 28 December 1968.
The attack, with both available carriers, was originally planned for 21 October, the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, but a hangar fire aboard Illustrious on 18 October forced its postponement until 11 November when the next favourable phase of the moon occurred.
Tuesday guards opened fired at some 130 civilian detainees in the lockup, a hangar, and fired again when prisoners tried to flee.
In the sealed, tented airplane hangar, crushed fire trucks, ambulances, and even a taxi cab await their return to the underground museum.
Fueled by the avgas pouring onto the hangar deck, the fires detonated the 80000 pound of bombs and torpedoes strewn across the hangar deck in a series of catastrophic multiple fuel-air explosions that blew out the hangar sides.
Planes taking off and landing at the same airport have previously crashed into houses and in September 2013, four people were killed when their small plane veered into a hangar and caught fire.
The crash collapsed the hangar and the fire spread to two neighboring buildings.
Also, the fully enclosed structure of the new hangar decks made fire suppression difficult, at least in part because fuel vapors could accumulate in the hangars.
