The glaciers in the Mont Blanc massif are constantly spitting up relics of the past. Besides macabre bodies which need to be identified, it also churns up bits and pieces of wreckage of Air India's Malabar Princess and Kachenjunga airplane crashes of the 1950s and 60s. In Chamonix you can visit the Chalet des Bossons (made more accessible this summer by the re-opening of the Bossons chairlift) which has a good museum of artifacts of these plane crashes on display. The plane crashes, both from the same airline company, Air India, ironically crashed in the same location on Mont Blanc. The crashes have fascinated many relic hunters and have even generate enough interest to inspire the 2004 fictional film, the Malabar Princess. A real life relic hunter, Daniel Roche has hunted for debris from the past 5 years in the massif and has found various interesting articles. On the 22nd September Daniel Roche made his biggest discovery to date - he found the Malabar Princess engine at 1800m (to be confirmed by Lyon scientists). The engine must have surfaced due to serac activity. Yesterday the engine was air-lifted down to Chamonix. It's amazing how well preserved some articles are after hibernating in their glacial tombs. Daniel Roche even found newspaper clipping from the day before the Kachenjunga crash the 24th January 1966.
