Indian envoy to France pays homage to victims of 1950, 1966 Air India flight crashes at Mont Blanc

Jawed Ashraf, the Indian envoy to France and Monaco, paid homage to the victims of the Air India flight crashes of 1950 and 1966 at Mont Blanc on Wednesday.

"Paid homage with Mayor of St Gervais Jean Marc Peillex to the victims of Air India flight crashes of 1950 and 1966 in Mont Blanc. First done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2019. Thanked Mayor and people for the memorials high up in the Alps and in the town. A strong India-France bond," the ambassador wrote in a tweet.

Notably, both planes crashed in the same region on the Mont Blanc mountain that lies along the French-Italian border and extends into Switzerland. There were no survivors, with the 1966 crash claiming the life of Homi Jehangir Bhabha -- revered as the father of India's nuclear programme.

In all, there were 48 people on board the aircraft that crashed in 1950 while 117 people, including 11 crew members, died in 1966.

The monument to honour them is located at Nid d'Aigle, a French village near the foothills of Mont Blanc.

On 3 November 1950, Air India flight 245, a Lockheed four-motor propeller plane named 'Malabar Princess' crashed into Rocher de la Tournette, a rocky point at a height of around 4,677 m on Mont Blanc. The Mumbai-London flight, with intermediate stops, had departed from Cairo and was to land in Geneva.

In 1966, Air India flight 101, a Boeing 707 airliner named 'Kanchenjunga', crashed into the mountain. Again a Mumbai-London flight, it had made a stopover at Geneva.

( With inputs from ANI )