Bossons Glacier reveals an astonishing piece of the past
In November 1950, the Malabar Princess, an Air India flight en route to London from Bombay, hit a pocket of air at around 5000m that caused it to crash just below the summit of Mont Blanc. The 48 passengers and crew all died. Sixteen years later another Air India flight (but don't let that put you off!), the Kangchenjunga, also crashed into the mountain at about the same point, this time resulting in 117 victims. Between the two accidents, the planes disintegrated into millions of pieces that were scattered over the French and Italian sides of the mountain. Chances are that they would have long been forgotten about were it not for the fact that the Bossons Glacier has been periodically churning out reminders of the tragedy over the last 20 years.
Two weeks ago, the latest artefacts were found by Daniel Roche, an alpinist from Lyon, who was climbing on the Plateau des Pyramides at 2000m, nearly 3 vertical kilometres below the site of the crash. He came across the backpack of Josette Bonnargent, one of the two French passengers on board the Kanchenjunga. Inside was a letter, some pieces of jewellery, underwear and her business cards, all perfectly preserved. The astonishing find was not the first for Roche, who has unearthed nearly half a tonne of debris from the crashes in the last 2 and a half years! He has a found number of pieces from the Malabar Princess including a large section of fuselage depicting the image of an Indian woman dancing, but more recently it is debris from the second crash that the glacier has been expelling. Rotor blades, cables and seat belt buckles are among some of the varied items he has gathered from the ice. "If the family get in touch with me, then of course, I'll be happy to give them the bag. I don't do this for any monetary gain, for me it has become my passion” he said.
Roche is not alone in his curiosity with these plane crashes. In 1969, three years after the Kangchenjunga went down, Claude Jacoux, the son of one of the victims, was searching the area with a guide when they came across the corps of one of the passengers, still strapped into his seat! An extensive collection of somewhat less disturbing discoveries has been amassed by various parties over the years and large chunks of the undercarriage and fuselage of the Malabar Princess can be seen at the Chalet des Bossons overlooking the glacier.
For Roche, he said he will continue searching until he finds the ultimate souvenir – the black box of the Kangchenjunga, which was never recovered.
Source: Le Dauphine
