Bag from Air India crash found after 46 years

Sep 19, 2012 |

New Delhi

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It’s a homecoming of sorts for an Indian diplomatic bag carrying mail that lay buried under several feet of snow for over four decades after an Air India aircraft, the ill-fated Kanchenjunga, crashed in the French Alps, killing all 117 passengers on board.

The bag has been retrieved from icy heights where it lay after AI Boeing 707 Kanchenjunga carrying it crashed on the southwest face of Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966.

The aircraft crashed while making its descent for a scheduled stopover in Geneva, Switzerland. It’s final destination was New York. Among the passengers who perished on this flight was noted nuclear scientist Home Jehangir Bhabha.

On Tuesday afternoon, the bag lay on a table in a conference room of the external publicity division of the ministry of external affairs (MEA), having travelled back from Paris where it was sent after being found in the snow by a mountain rescue worker and his friend. It appeared to have stood well the vagaries of both time and weather.

Its contents weighing nine kilogram, the bag

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