• The aircraft carrier earned a place in 20th-century naval history.
• The aircraft carrier contains tons of asbestos, heavy metals, and other toxic material.
• Tons of toxic could leach into the water and pollute the marine food chain.

Brazil sank a decommissioned aircraft carrier on Friday, according to the Navy, despite environmental organizations alleging the formerly French ship was laden with dangerous materials.

The “planned and controlled sinking occurred late in the afternoon” on Friday, 350 kilometers (220 miles) off the Brazilian coast in the Atlantic Ocean, at a depth of “about 5,000 meters (16,000 feet),” according to a Navy statement.

The decision to cancel the six-decade-old Sao Paulo, announced Thursday, came after Brazilian authorities searched in vain to locate a port prepared to accept it.

Though defense officials said they would sink the vessel in the “safest area,” environmentalists attacked the decision, saying the aircraft carrier contains tons of asbestos, heavy metals, and other toxic materials that could leach into the water and pollute the marine food chain.

The Basel Action Network (BAN) had urged Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who entered office last month promising to stop the country’s spiraling environmental disaster under far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, to suspend the “dangerous” proposal immediately.

The aircraft carrier earned a place in 20th-century naval history after being built in the late 1950s in France and sailing for 37 years as the Foch.

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