A decommissioned 1960s aircraft carrier that has been floating offshore for three months because Turkey has refused to let it enter their country to be dismantled will be sunk in the Atlantic Ocean in Brazilian ship transporting cocaine intercepted by the French navy in Sierra Leone-controlled waters, the Brazilian Navy announced on Wednesday.
The 32,000-ton Sao Paulo carrier was being towed by a tug to Europe, but it was stopped at the Straits of Gibraltar and was sent back across the Atlantic after Turkey deemed it to be an environmental concern.
Despite a request by Environment Minister Marina Silva not to sink the carrier, the Navy said it had no choice but to scuttle the ship in water about 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) deep 350 kilometers (217 miles) off-shore within Brazil’s exclusive economic zone.
The site is far from environmental protection areas and free of undersea communication cables, the Navy statement said.
“Given its deteriorating floating condition and the inevitability of uncontrolled sinking, there is no other option but to jettison the hull and sink it in a planned way,” it said.
The Navy had planned to scuttle the carrier on Wednesday at sea but public prosecutors sought to stop the sinking in Brazilian waters citing the environmental threat it poses, including tonnes of asbestos used for paneling inside the ship.
A federal judge on Wednesday afternoon denied their request for an injunction arguing that the Navy had weighed the environmental impact against other factors.
The Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier served the French Navy from 1963 to 2000 as the Foch, capable of carrying 40 planes on board.