Air India Flight 245
| Air India Flight 245 | |
|---|---|
 An Air India Lockheed Constellation , 1953 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled Flight Into Terrain |
| place | Rocher de la Tournette, Montblanc massif , France |
| date | November 3, 1950 |
| Fatalities | 48 |
| Survivors | no |
| Injured | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-749 Constellation |
| operator | Air India |
| Mark | VT-CQP |
| Surname | "Malabar Princess" |
| Departure airport | Bombay-Santacruz Airport , India |
| 1. Stopover | Cairo International Airport , Egypt |
| 2. Stopover | Geneva Airport , Switzerland |
| Destination airport | London Airport , UK |
| Passengers | 40 |
| crew | 8th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On the Air-India Flight 245 from Bombay (now Mumbai ) to London with stopovers in Cairo and Geneva crashed during a flight accident on 3 November 1950, Lockheed L-749 Constellation of Air India to Berg touch on the Mont-Blanc -Vorgipfel Rocher de la Tournette in stormy weather and poor visibility.
Course of the accident
Air India Flight 245 was an international flight under the command of British pilot Alan Saint and at the time of the accident with 40 passengers and 8 crew members in the second section of its total flight route - i.e. from Cairo to Geneva. The aircraft used a Lockheed L-749 Constellation with the air vehicle registration VT-CQP wore the manufacturer's serial number 2506. It had its first flight in 1948 and therefore only two years passed before the accident. The machine was morning in Cairo on the accident at 2 o'clock start and was at the time of the accident in landing approach at Geneva. Up to that point the flight had gone without any known problems. At 10:43 am local time, the airport control towers in Grenoble and Geneva received the last radio message with a position and altitude information (“4,700m above Voiron ”). A few minutes later, the aircraft disappeared from the radar and initially there was no trace of it. At the time of the crash, stormy weather conditions and very poor visibility prevailed in the accident area, so that a search was not possible immediately. Only two days later, on November 5, 1950, after the weather had improved, the wreck could be seen by a Swiss aircraft on the French side of the Mont Blanc massif in the area of the 4,677 m high Rocher de la Tournette just below the summit. The rescue teams set out as a result of the sighting reached the accident site four days after the crash and found no survivors there. If the plane had flown 30 meters further west, it would have missed the mountain and the accident would not have happened.
Cultural references
- The novel " The Mountain of Temptation " by Henri Troyat , which in turn became the basis for the US film " The Mountain of Temptation " from 1956 with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner , is based on the events of this crash.
- In the 2001 film “ The fabulous world of Amélie ”, the title character Amélie reads a newspaper report about mountain climbers who accidentally discover a mailbag on Mont Blanc and discover that it comes from the “Malabar Princess” accident over 40 years ago . This headline moves Amélie to make the lonely concierge of her house happy with a forged love letter from her missing husband, which was allegedly in this mailbag and has therefore only been delivered to her after more than four decades.
- The French feature film “ Malabar Princess ” from 2004 is about a boy whose mother disappeared in the French Alps while searching for the plane wreck of the “Malabar Princess” and who five years later goes in search of her.
Others
More than 15 years later, on January 24, 1966, another Air India aircraft, a Boeing 707-437, crashed in the same mountain area on Air India flight 101 , again approaching Geneva. In this accident, everyone on board was also killed. With 117 deaths, it was the number of fatalities after the second most serious aircraft accident of its time on French soil.
Even decades after the aircraft accidents, discoveries are still being made in the area of the Glacier des Bossons glacier, which flows down the northern flank of Mont-Blanc, that originate from these two accidents:
- In 1986 Christian Mollier, the then operator of the “Chalet du Glacier”, a managed mountain hut at the foot of the glacier at 1,425 m above sea level, found a wheel of the “Malabar Princess” chassis in front of the chalet on the glacier. The found wheel had been carried down the valley by the glacier for 36 years. It is now on display in the “Chalet du Glacier”.
- In 2008, a climber found several Indian newspapers dated January 23, 1966.
- On September 8, 2012, a mailbag with diplomatic mail from the Indian Foreign Ministry, which could be assigned to Air India Flight 101 from 1966 and thus reappeared over 46 years after the accident, was recovered and passed on to the Indian Embassy in Paris.
- In September 2013, a French climber found a small metal container engraved with Made in India on the glacier . This contained sapphires , rubies and emeralds worth several 100,000 euros, which had probably belonged to one of the passengers on Air India flight 101 and were intended for a recipient in London.
- On June 22, 2014, a French climber found a camera that belonged to one of the aircraft occupants. However, the film in the camera was too badly damaged to be able to develop photos from it.
- In July 2017, a French treasure hunter found a mummified hand and part of a thigh on Glacier des Bossons .
Web links
- Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- The glacier des Bossons: plane crashes. The "Malabar Princess" catastrophe. Chalet du Glacier des Bossons, accessed on February 25, 2016 .
- Philippe Beuf: L'accident du Malabar Princess (November 3, 1950). aiguilledumidi.net, accessed February 25, 2016 (French).
- Crashs au Mont-Blanc de deux appareils d'Air-India a destination de Genève. Une météo bouchée sur le Mont-Blanc et un avion légèrement hors de sa route. Le site des pionniers de l'aéronautique à Genève, accessed on 25 February 2016 (in French).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The glacier des Bossons: plane crashes. The "Malabar Princess" catastrophe. (No longer available online.) Chalet du Glacier des Bossons, archived from the original on June 20, 2009 ; accessed on February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Malabar Princess (2004). IMDb.com , accessed August 7, 2014 .
- ↑ Malabar Princess. Tout savoir sur Malabar Princess. Warner Bros. France, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; accessed on February 16, 2016 (French).
- ↑ The Chalet ( Memento from May 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ India diplomatic bag found in French Alps after 46 years. BBC News, August 30, 2013, accessed September 28, 2013 .
- ^ Find on Montblanc: Mountaineer finds valuable gemstones. tagesschau.de, archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; accessed on February 16, 2016 .
- ↑ Alpine climber finds 'India plane crash' jewels. BBC News, September 27, 2013, accessed September 28, 2013 .
- ↑ Mountaineer discovers mummy hand. 20 Minuten, July 29, 2017, accessed July 29, 2017 .