Indian newspapers from 1966 have surfaced in the Mont-Blanc massif, on the Bossons glacier. They were kept in a block of ice that just melted.
With headlines from when Indira Gandhi became India's Prime Minister (January 1966), the newspapers are believed to have been onboard Air India Flight 101, that tragically crashed in the Mont-Blanc massif in 1966.
Indian Newspapers Resurfaced
Since the onset of global warming and the retreat of the glaciers, the ice fields of the high mountains have become time capsules.
Timothée Mottin runs the cafe-restaurant La Cabane du Cerro, which is located at an altitude of 1,350 m (4,455 ft).
La Cabane du Cerro is about 45 minutes by foot from the Bossons glacier, where the Air India plane called the "Kangchenjunga" crashed in 1966.
On 9 July 2020, Timothée Mottin discovered the Indian newspapers dated 1966 during a walk at the end of his work shift. “It’s not unusual. Every time we walk on the glacier with friends, we find remains of the crash", said Mottin.
However, he acknowledges the fact that he was lucky to have found the newspapers when he did. Most likely, the ice in which the newspapers were encased for nearly six decades had just melted. "They were in the open air, posed in the snow, at the foot of a fall of seracs. They could have deteriorated very quickly", said Mottin.
Among the found newspapers, there were Indian titles announcing the election of Indira Gandhi, the first and, to date, only female Prime Minister of India & copies of the Indian daily newspapers "The National Herald" and "The Economic Times".
The newspapers are in very good condition and can be read. Once completely dry, the precious copies will join the few other pieces exhibited by Timothée Mottin within the confines of the Cabane du Cerro. Among them, there is a photograph of an Indian couple which greatly impressed Timothée. "I prefer to show them than hide them in an attic while waiting to sell them", points out Timothée. According to him, finding vestiges from the tragic plane crash has become a business for less scrupulous hikers.
Many other discoveries
The newspapers are not the first vestiges found from the two mysterious Indian plane crashes. On November 3, 1950: the Malabar Princess, an Air India aircraft descending into Geneva, crashed on the Mont-Blanc massif. All 48 passengers died. Sixteen years later, on January 24, 1966, a Boeing 707, also belonging to Air India, flying from Bombay to London, crashed in the same proximity. All 117 passengers died.
In 2013, a French mountaineer found a metal box containing emeralds, sapphires and rubies, evaluated between €129,000-€250,000 (£117,000-£230,000).
In 2019, human bones were found by the Bossons glacier, and in 2018, a hiker discovered a hand. These remains, and many others found over the past six decades, are probably linked to any of the two Air India planes that crashed in the Mont-Blanc massif.
Melting Glaciers
Scientists from the National Snow & Ice Data Center argue that since the beginning of the twentieth century, glaciers from all over the world have been retreating at unprecedented rates. Rising temperatures and a decrease in winter precipitation have negatively impacted glaciers all over the world.
As the glaciers recede, the remains of missing hikers have turned up with increasing frequency in the Alps.
In 2017, a Swiss couple who had been missing for 75 years was found in the receding Tsanfleuron glacier (Switzerland).
In the Italian Alps, melting ice has revealed bodies of fallen soldiers from the first world war.
In 2014, a climber who was missing for 32 years was found in the Mont Blanc massif, on the French-Italian border.
Sources @ Le Dauphine, france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr, The Guardian, BBC
