Posted on Jan 24, 2023 at 12:45 p.m. Updated on January 24, 2023 at 2:50 p.m.
Sad end for a former French Navy flagship. The aircraft carrier Foch, which became Sao Paulo in 2000 by flying the Brazilian flag, is wandering at sea in search of a place of refuge, at the risk of ending up at the bottom of the ocean if a solution is not found quickly . .
The Brazilian Navy said on Friday it towed the old 266-meter-long hull, filled with asbestos, paint and other toxic waste, in the Atlantic Ocean 315 kilometers off the Brazilian coast on Friday.
She specifies in a press release that she will not authorize her return to a port or to Brazilian territorial waters, given her state of decay and the “high risk” she poses to the environment.
“Major Environmental Crime”
The former aircraft carrier, which remained in service with 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 may sink the hull “under a false excuse.” “.
Lula arrested by NGOs
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 demanded.
The Foch was bought by Brazil in 2000. Due to her disrepair and a series of problems, most notably related to an onboard fire in 2005, and although her modernization would have been too expensive, the country had opted to get rid of it.
Trip to Turkey cancelled
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. After several months off 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, operating on behalf of the shipyard, had begun to pull away from the Brazilian coast, forcing Brasilia to salvage the lumbering vessel.
Les Echos with AFP