Air India Flight 245

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Air India Flight 245
Air India Lockheed L-749A Constellation VT-CQP.jpg
VT-CQP, the aircraft involved in the accident, in 1949
Accident
Date3 November 1950 (1950-11-03)
Summary Controlled flight into terrain in poor weather
Site Mont Blanc
Aircraft
Aircraft type Lockheed L-749A Constellation
Aircraft nameMalabar Princess
Operator Air India
IATA flight No.AI245
ICAO flight No.AIC245
Call signAIRINDIA 245
Registration VT-CQP
Flight origin Sahar International Airport, Bombay, India
1st stopover Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt
2nd stopover Cointrin Airport, Geneva, Switzerland
DestinationLondon Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Occupants48
Passengers40
Crew8
Fatalities48
Survivors0

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.

Some mail on board the flight was recovered after the accident and was annotated with "Retardé par suite d'accident aerien" ("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 September 2013, a climber discovered a cache of jewelry that is believed to have been aboard one of these two flights. [6]

English text of the monument at refuge du Nid d'Aigle [fr] in Mont-Blanc Massif Monument Malabar Princess Kanchenjunga Refuge du Nid d'Aigle English text.jpg
English text of the monument at refuge du Nid d'Aigle  [ fr ] in Mont-Blanc Massif

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References

  1. "MALABAR PRINCESS" . Retrieved 17 June 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 "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