First modification:
The Foch aircraft carrier, the former flagship of the French navy that flew the Brazilian flag in 2000, is going to be sunk in the Atlantic due to its advanced state of deterioration, a military source announced on Wednesday. The NGOs denounce an “environmental crime”.
The Foch aircraft carrier will soon sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The former flagship of the French Navy, which began to fly the Brazilian flag in 2000, will be sunk due to the deterioration of its hull, as announced by the Brazilian authorities on Wednesday, February 1. An “environmental crime” according to NGOs.
Described as a “30,000-ton toxic package” by the association Robin desBois, the 266-meter-long old hull is littered with asbestos, paint, and other toxic waste, according to various environmental organizations.
But the Brazilian navy said there was no other option given its deteriorating state and that the “spontaneous sinking” of the hull was inevitable.
“Abandon the hull by sinking it in a controlled way”
“In view of the risks involved in towing and the deterioration of the hull (…), the only solution is to abandon the hull by sinking it in a controlled manner,” the Navy explained late Wednesday in a joint statement with the Ministry of Brazilian defense.
An area about 350 km from the Brazilian coast, with a depth of 5,000 meters, was considered “the safest” for sinking, according to the statement.
A fortnight ago, the Navy announced that it had towed the old aircraft carrier in the Atlantic. She was previously towed by a Dutch tug for the Turkish shipyard Sok Denizcilik.
The Navy stated that, given its state of deterioration and the “high risk” it posed to the environment, it would not allow its return to a port or to Brazilian territorial waters.
Several NGOs expressed concern that Brazil was committing an “environmental crime.”
“The Brazilian Navy must be condemned for negligence. If they sink this highly toxic ship in the middle of the Atlantic, they will be violating three international environmental treaties for no good reason,” said Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network (BAN). .
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office had asked the courts to prohibit the Navy from sinking it, but this request was rejected on Wednesday by a court in the northeastern state of Pernambuco.
Scrap
The saga of the former Navy flagship, which took part in NATO air operations against Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, is reminiscent of that of its sister ship, the Clemenceau.
The latter was withdrawn from service in 2010 in the United Kingdom after being banned in India following a great controversy over the presence of asbestos on board.
Built in the late 1950s at the Saint-Nazaire shipyards (western France), the Foch served the French Navy for 37 years.
The ship, capable of catapulting 12 to 15-ton aircraft at a speed of 150 knots on takeoff, was purchased in 2000 by Brazil, which renamed it São Paulo.
But due to its age and a series of problems related in particular to a fire in 2005, and since it would have cost too much to modernize, Brasília decided to get rid of it.
The Sok Denizcilik shipyard bought it for scrapping in April 2021, but threatened to abandon it when it could not find a port to receive it.
In June 2022, he obtained permission from the Brazilian authorities to transport it to Turkey for dismantling.
Dangerous residues
But in late August, when he was in the Strait of Gibraltar, Turkish environmental authorities said he was no longer welcome.
Brazil turned the ship around, but did not allow it to dock, despite the fact that the hull had been found to have “aggravated damage.”
On January 19, the Dutch tugboat ALP Guard, which operated on behalf of the shipyard, began to move away from the Brazilian coast, after spending several months off the coast of Pernambuco.
However, a court ruling prohibited him from navigating international waters without prior permission from the Brazilian authorities.
For this reason, the Brazilian public environmental agency Ibama, responsible in Brazil for the application of the Basel Convention on the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, ended up requesting the intervention of the Brazilian Navy.
*With AFP; adapted from its original in French
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