UKH

A climber who discovered a buried box of gemstones on a Mont Blanc's Bossons Glacier in 2013 has been rewarded with half of the treasure, while the other half has been presented to Chamonix's local commune. The gemstones are believed to have been on board an Air India Boeing 707 flight which crashed on Mont Blanc in 1966 while en-route from Mumbai to New York, via Geneva and London. The hundreds of emeralds, rubies and sapphires weighing approximately 140g in total were split into two lots worth £128,000 each.

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Great write up, Natalie. I remember (though not first hand...) that Desmaison was intent on blowing the whole affair open when he came down. Then as if by magic he just clammed up and for the rest of his life refused to answer any questions and so took the secrets to his grave. Imagine how heavily he must have been leaned on to silence someone like him!

I'm really interested in this. I was surprised that Le Dauphiné's article was the only real mention of this theory. I came across some comments by Françoise Rey in the last few days that suggest something might come to a head shortly. 

OK there's a bit more on Google.fr now I look into it further. 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Chabert

I've a feeling that Paris Match was involved at some stage, presumably - and I'm dredging my meory here - Desmaison was going to feature. I have a vague recollection that photos mysteriously disappeared. I think the evidence that points to a collision with an Italian military plane is more than convincing!

Have you had a chance to talk to Françoise? She will have been following events very closely no doubt.

Yeah I'd like to. I might do, although I suspect she'll not want to give too much info away.

Having seen plane parts from Malabar Princess emerging from the glacier des bossons back in the early/mid 90s I was amazed at how some bits seemed relatively unscathed (a wheel) and most was unidentifiably mangled. It's astonishing luck that something like that could emerge in 2013 in a state other than shredded box remains and expensive dust.

Edit: unless it spent some years on holiday on the Jardin du Miage?

Very interesting.A friend and I were practising on the Bossons in 1994 and found ourselves in an area of wires and bits of a plane I found a book,similar to a telephone directory full of place names with latitudes and longitudes which we took to be from the cockpit of whichever plane it was We handed it in but no jewels in our case.

Probably you are already aware, Françoise Rey has written a couple of books. This is the later one (2013):

https://livre.fnac.com/a5832872/Francoise-Rey-Crash-au-Mont-Blanc#int=:NonA...

It does seem a bit odd that a military aircraft would be messing around in commercial airspace - unless the Boeing got lost of course.

Anyway, an intriguing story which might come to something after 55 years!

ff

Yep I mentioned them in the article. 

Oops so you did - not reading to the end of the article error

If the plane crashed on the Italian side (as https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Chabert says), how did the gemstones get to the Bossons Glacier?

I'd wondered that as well, but have found a possible explanation. Have you clicked on the Le Dauphine article linked in Natalie's article? It contains an aerial view of the 707 crash site, and if I've interpreted the photo correctly the site was right on the summit ridge, immediately west of the summit of Mont Blanc, rather than somewhere on the Italian side as stated in the fr.wikipedia piece (maybe that's referring to the fighter remains, which seem to have been somewhere above the Sella bivvy hut). That would explain how some at least of the 707 wreckage was transported northwards in the glacier.

I descended that ridge in summer '67 on the way down to Val Veni after my first ascent of MB, but didn't notice any wreckage. Have I got the location wrong, was the wreckage already buried by snow after 1 1/2 years, or what?

Rob F

Any wreckage that could be recovered would have been removed asap for the investigation. Unlikely to spot anything months later, let alone 1.5 years

Finally, a good reason to go mountaineering! 

What a fascinating story. 

Not so.. you haven't read about crystal hunters in the very-vaguely Les Droites kind of area then?

Have a read of this https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/crysta...

Enjoyed that. Thanks- I vaguely knew about the crystal miners 

good article. 

I've only just looked at this as I presumed it held nothing new. It doesn't.

On my mantlepiece I have a lovely quartz crystal which I found by chance near the summit of the Grand Dru.