An old hull, filled with asbestos. A carcass, 266 meters long and 50 meters wide, full of toxic waste. This is what remains of the Foch, “one of the finest units of the French Navy”, according to the press of the time. Born in 1963, active for 37 years in the navy, this former French glory threatens to turn into an environmental disaster.
The former tricolor flagship has been wandering for months at sea, looking for a port that would like it, to dismantle it, despite its state of degradation, and the high risk it represents for the environment. States and companies refuse to take care of the burden that would represent the dismantling of this 32,000-tonne mastodon, very dilapidated since a fire that occurred on board in 2005.
Acquired by Brazil in 2000, for 12 million dollars and renamed the “São Paulo”, the aircraft carrier is currently towed in the Atlantic Ocean, 315 kilometers from the Brazilian coast. The Brazilian Navy, which escorts him, refuses his return to its territorial waters. A position maintained for months, despite the observation of a “worsening of the damage” observed at the level of the hull. And the other nations and ports are no more interested in receiving the ship, decommissioned since 2018.
Imbroglio between Turkey and Brazil
The former aircraft carrier was previously towed by a Dutch tugboat on behalf of the Turkish shipyard Sok Denizcilik. The latter bought it for scrap in April 2021. Brazil did not want to modernize it, due to the cost of the operation, and the lack of spare parts available. In June 2022, the shipyard obtained the green light from the Brazilian authorities to transport it to Turkey. But, while he was at the level of the Strait of Gibraltar, at the end of August, the Turkish environmental authorities had made it known that he was no longer welcome.
Brazil then brought the device back, and put it on hold, at sea, prohibiting it from docking… And from sailing in international waters. After several months off the port of Suape, in the state of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil, the boat gradually drifted towards international waters, arousing the fears of environmental NGOs, who want to avoid a “scuttling operation ” from the Brazilian authorities. Since being towed, Brazil maintains the status quo.
The Brazilian Navy “is now poised to perpetrate a major environmental crime at sea,” warned Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network (BAN), saying in a statement fears it “sinks” the hull “using a fake excuse”. “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”, claims the organization Shipbreaking Platform, estimating that if Brazil were to “intentionally” sink the hull it “would amount to a state-sponsored environmental crime”.