The Brazilian Navy announced on Friday that it had sunk the former Foch aircraft carrier filled with asbestos, paint and other toxic waste in the Atlantic Ocean, a decision criticized by several environmental organizations.
The “planned and controlled sinking occurred late Friday afternoon, some 350 km off the Brazilian coast, in an area “approximately 5,000 meters deep,” the navy said in a statement.
She had estimated earlier in the week that there was no other choice given the very degraded state of this old hull 266 meters long, described as “toxic package of 30,000 tonnes” by the association Robin Woodland.
37 years in the service of the French Navy
“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”, explained the navy late Wednesday in a press release joint with the Brazilian Ministry of Defence.
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.
This flagship of the French Navy, which was transferred to the Brazilian flag in 2000, has long wandered at sea in search of a port of refuge. 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.