Body parts that could belong to passengers killed in two Air India plane crashes more than 50 years ago have been found on Mont Blanc in the French Alps.
Daniel Roche, who is fascinated by air plane accidents and has spent years combing the Bossons Glacier looking for remains, made the discovery on 27 July.
"I had never found any significant human remains before," he told AFP. This time however he had found a hand and the upper part of a leg.
In January 1966, an Air India Boeing 707 from Bombay to New York crashed near Mont Blanc's summit, killing all 117 people on board.
Among the passengers who were killed was Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
Another Air India flight crashed on the mountain in 1950, killing 48 people.
Roche said the remains he had found could be of a female passenger from the 1966 Boeing 707 flight, as he also discovered one of the plane's four jet engines.
Roche contacted local emergency services in the Chamonix valley who took the remains down the mountain by helicopter and they were due to be examined by experts.
"These remains are probably not from the same person," said Stephane Bozon of the local gendarmerie. “They are probably from passengers, but between the two aircrafts, it's difficult to say,” he added.
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)