This time it’s really over for the Foch. The former French aircraft carrier was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after several years of wandering and reversals in its fate.
THE “planned and controlled sinking occurred late afternoon” Friday, February 3, some 350 km from the Brazilian coast, in an area of “approximate depth of 5,000 meters”the Brazilian Navy said in a statement.
Earlier in the week, she felt she had no other choice given the very degraded state of this old 266-meter-long hull, described as “toxic package of 30,000 tonnes” by the Robin des Bois association.
“Faced with the risks involved in towing and because of the deterioration of the hull (…), the only solution is to abandon the hull by sinking it in a controlled manner”the Navy explained in a joint statement with the Brazilian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday.
A “tragic and regrettable” solution
The Federal Public Ministry of Brazil (MPF), which tried to stop the operation by multiplying the appeals to the courts, warned of the consequences, stressing this week that the aircraft carrier “currently contains 9.6 tonnes of asbestos, a potentially toxic and carcinogenic substance, as well as 644 tonnes of inks and other hazardous materials”. There is a “risk of serious environmental damage (…) in particular because the hull is damaged”argued the prosecution.
Same story on the side of the environmental NGOs Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and Basel Action Network, which denounced “a violation of three international treaties” on the environment. This shipwreck will cause damage “incalculable”with “impacts on marine life and coastal communities” they decried in a joint statement.
But preventing this operation would be ” probably “ ” useless “given “the imminence of a spontaneous sinking of the hull, which would not benefit the environment and would be likely to endanger the lives of the crew involved in the towing”, for his part wrote the judge of the federal court of the state of Pernambuco (north-east), according to the information website G1. The magistrate authorized the operation although he considered it a solution “tragic and regrettable”according to G1.
An area some 350 km off the Brazilian coast, 5,000 meters deep, was considered to be “the safest” for this scuttling, according to the press release from the Brazilian Ministry of Defense and Navy.
“Environmental crime”
Two weeks ago, the navy announced that it had taken the former aircraft carrier in tow in the Atlantic. It was previously towed by a Dutch tug for the Turkish shipyard Sok Denizcilik. She specified that in view of her state of degradation and “high risk” that he represented for the environment, it would not allow his return to a port or to Brazilian territorial waters. Several NGOs then expressed their fear of seeing Brazil commit a “environmental crime”.
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Built at the end of the 1950s in the shipyard of Saint-Nazaire, in the west of France, the Foch was for 37 years in the service of the French navy, before being bought in 2000 by Brazil, which renamed it Sao Paulo, and for a long time wandering at sea in search of a port of refuge.
Due to its dilapidation and a series of problems linked in particular to a fire in 2005, and while its modernization would have cost too much, Brasilia decided to get rid of it. The Sok Denizcilik shipyard bought her for scrap in April 2021 but threatened to abandon her because they couldn’t find a port to receive her.
More welcome in Turkey
In June 2022, she obtained authorization from the Brazilian authorities to ferry her to Turkey for dismantling. But when he is at the end of August at the level of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Turkish environmental authorities let it be known that he is no longer welcome. Brazil made him turn around but without authorizing him to dock despite the observation of a “aggravation of damage” at hull level.
On January 19, the Dutch tugboat ALP Guard operating on behalf of the yard began to move away from the Brazilian coast, after having spent several months off Pernambuco. But a court decision prohibited him from sailing in international waters without prior authorization from the Brazilian authorities.
This is the reason why 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 an intervention from the Brazilian Navy.