Air India Flight 245

Air India Flight 245

VT-CQP, the aircraft involved in the accident, in 1949
Accident
Date	3 November 1950 (1950-11-03)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain in poor weather
Site	Mont Blanc
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed L-749A Constellation
Aircraft name	Malabar Princess
Operator	Air India
IATA flight No.	AI245
ICAO flight No.	AIC245
Call sign	AIRINDIA 245
Registration	VT-CQP
Flight origin	Sahar International Airport, Bombay, India
1st stopover	Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt
2nd stopover	Cointrin Airport, Geneva, Switzerland
Destination	London Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Occupants	48
Passengers	40
Crew	8
Fatalities	48
Survivors	0

Air India Flight 245 was a scheduled Air India passenger flight from Bombay to London via Cairo and Geneva. On the morning of 3 November 1950, the Lockheed L-749A Constellation serving the flight crashed into Mont Blanc, France, while approaching Geneva. All 48 aboard were killed.

The plane operating the flight was named Malabar Princess, registered as VT-CQP. It was piloted by Captain Alan R. Saint, 34, and co-pilot V. Y. Korgaokar and was carrying 40 passengers and 8 crew. While over France, descending towards Geneva Airport, the flight crashed into the French Alps in stormy weather, killing all on board. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Accident

The airplane hit the face of the Rocher de la Tournette at a height of 4,677 m (15,344 ft), on the French side of Mont Blanc. ^[2] Stormy weather prevented immediate rescue efforts; debris was located by a Swiss plane on 5 November, and rescue parties reached the site two days later. ^[2] There were no survivors. The last transmission from the aircraft, received by controllers at Grenoble and Geneva, was "I am vertical with Voiron, at 4700 meters altitude." at 10:43 a.m.

Aftermath

English text of the monument at refuge du Nid d'Aigle  [ fr ] in Mont-Blanc Massif

Some mail on board the flight was recovered after the accident and was annotated with "Retardé par suite d'accident aérien" ("delayed due to aviation accident"); further items of mail were found in 1951 and 1952.

On 8 June 1978, a patrol of the French mountain police found letters and a sack at the foot of the Bossons Glacier. Recovered were 57 envelopes and 55 letters (without envelopes) and all but eight letters were forwarded to their original addressees. ^[4] Sixteen years after the accident, Air India Flight 101 crashed in almost exactly the same spot under similar circumstances. ^[5]

In 2008 one of the engines from the crashed flight was discovered. In September 2013, a climber discovered a cache of jewelry that is believed to have been aboard one of these two flights. ^[6]

References

1. "MALABAR PRINCESS" . Retrieved 17 June 2009.
2. "The "Malabar Princess" Catastrophe". Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
3. "Accident description". Aviation Safety. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
4. Muir, Douglas N. (26 October 1978). "Letters Freed from a Glacier after 28 Years". Stamp Collecting . Vol. 131, no. 10. p. 1051.
5. Mendis, Sean (26 July 2004). "Air India: The story of the aircraft". Airwhiners.net. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
6. Pearson, Michael; Vandoorne, Saskya (26 September 2013). "Mysterious cache of jewels turns up atop French glacier". CNN.

45°49′59″N6°51′35″E / 45.83306°N 6.85972°E / 45.83306; 6.85972