Mountain rescue worker Arnaud Christmann and his neighbor Jules Berger made quite a discovery after tourists said they’d spotted “something shining” on the Bossons glacier on Mount Blanc in the French Alps.
“A couple on vacation came to us and told us they had seen something below them on the glacier, “Christmann told ABC News. After a two-hour hike up the tallest mountain in Western Europe, the men reached a wreckage site on the glacier that included pieces of a plane cabin, chairs, electrical cables, a wheel, a shoe. Then, just as they were descending, Christmann and Berger came across a 50-pound brown jute bag labeled “Diplomatic Mail” and “Ministry of External Affairs.”
The pouch had been on a 1966 Boeing 707 flight from Mumbai to New York, which crashed on the mountain’s southwest face while preparing for a stopover landing in Geneva. All 117 passengers onboard were killed, including the Indian director of the Atomic Energy Commission.The pouch contained mainly English and Indian newspapers from 1966, among other documents.
