The Brazilian Navy announced on Friday that it had towed the former Foch aircraft carrier (266 meters long) filled with asbestos, paint and other toxic waste in the Atlantic Ocean, 315 kilometers off the Brazilian coast. In a press release, she specifies that she will not authorize her return to a port or to Brazilian territorial waters, given her state of deterioration and the “high risk” she poses to the environment.
The former aircraft carrier, which served the French Navy for 37 years, was previously towed by a Dutch tugboat on behalf of the Turkish shipyard Sok Denizcilik. The latter bought it for scrap in April 2021 but threatened to abandon it as it could not find a port to pick it up.
Environmental groups are warning of the risk that the old ship, built in Saint-Nazaire in western France in the late 1950s, will end its life at the bottom of the ocean. In particular, they fear a “sinking operation” by the Brazilian authorities. The Brazilian Navy “is now poised to commit a major environmental crime at sea,” warns Basel Action Network (BAN) director Jim Puckett, saying in a statement it fears it is “sinking” the hull “under a false excuse.” .
“Poison Package of 30,000 Tons”
“It is worrying to have a toxic package of 30,000 tons at sea whose recipient we do not know,” warns the Robin des Bois association. And environmental groups are calling on new leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, sworn in on January 1, who has agreed to fight for the environment for his third term at the helm of the Latin American giant.
“We ask President Lula, as Commander-in-Chief of the Brazilian Navy, to intervene immediately and give the order to bring the Sao Paulo back to Rio de Janeiro,” the organization Shipbreaking Platform claims, estimating that if the Brazil “deliberately” sink the hull, that would come this “equated to a state-sponsored environmental crime”.
The former glory of the Royale, capable of catapulting 12 to 15 ton aircraft with a takeoff speed of 150 knots, was bought by Brazil in 2000. Due to her deterioration and a series of problems linked in particular to a fire on board that took place in 2005 and although its modernization would have cost too much, the country had decided to get rid of it.
In June 2022, the Sok Denizcilik shipyard received permission from the Brazilian authorities to transport her to Turkey for dismantling. But when he was off the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of August, the Turkish environmental authorities announced that he was no longer welcome. Brazil had then brought her back, but without permission to dock, despite noting “worsening damage” to the hull.
A situation reminiscent of that of Clemenceau
After several months in front of the port of Suape in the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, the Turkish shipyard had threatened to abandon the hull. On January 19, the Dutch tugboat ALP Guard therefore began to move away from the Brazilian coast on behalf of the shipyard. A court ruling banned him from sailing in international waters without prior authorization from Brazilian authorities.
The Brazilian public environmental agency Ibama, which is responsible for the application of the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes in Brazil, states on its website that it subsequently requested intervention from the Brazilian Navy.
The history of the former Navy flagship, which primarily took part in NATO air operations against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis in spring 1999, is reminiscent of that of its sister ship Clemenceau. It was deconstructed in the UK in 2010 after being banned in India following lively controversy over the presence of asbestos on board.