• The 32,000-ton Sao Paulo ship was dragged to Europe.
• The ship could not go across the Gibraltar straits as turkey refused its entry.
• There is no other option but to jettison the hull and sink it in a planned way.

The Brazilian Navy said on Wednesday that a decommissioned aircraft carrier from the 1960s that has been floating offshore for three months after Turkey refused its entry to be demolished there will be sunk in the Atlantic Ocean within Brazilian boundaries.

The 32,000-ton Sao Paulo ship was dragged to Europe by a tug but could not make it across the Gibraltar straits before being returned across the Atlantic after Turkey determined it was an environmental danger.

According to the Navy, the ship is taking on water and is at risk of sinking, thus it is not permitted to dock at Brazilian ports.

Despite a request from Environment Minister Marina Silva not to sink the carrier, the Navy claimed it had little choice but to scuttle it in water approximately 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) deep and 350 kilometers (217 miles) off the coast of Brazil.

“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 planned to scuttle the carrier at sea on Wednesday, but public prosecutors attempted to halt the sinking in Brazilian waters, citing the environmental harm posed by the ship’s asbestos cladding.

On Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge refused their request for an injunction, stating that the Navy had considered the environmental impact alongside other concerns.

The Foch, a Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier capable of carrying 40 planes, served the French Navy from 1963 to 2000.

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