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 (CFIT) in poor weather |
Site | Mont Blanc |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Lockheed L-749A Constellation |
Aircraft name | Malabar Princess |
Operator | Air India |
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 |
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 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 crash 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 crash, 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]
References
- ^ "MALABAR PRINCESS". Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ a b c "The "Malabar Princess" Catastrophe". Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ "Accident description". Aviation Safety. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ Muir, Douglas N. (26 October 1978). "Letters Freed from a Glacier after 28 Years". Stamp Collecting. Vol. 131, no. 10. p. 1051.
- ^ Mendis, Sean (26 July 2004). "Air India: The story of the aircraft". Airwhiners.net. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- ^ Pearson, Michael; Vandoorne, Saskya (26 September 2013). "Mysterious cache of jewels turns up atop French glacier". CNN.
- v
- t
- e
- TWA Flight 513 (1946)
- TWA Flight 6963 (1946)
- Pan Am Flight 121 (1947)
- Pan Am Flight 1-10 (1948)
- Air France Flight 009 (1949)
- TWA Flight 903 (1950)
- Air India Flight 245 (1950)
- Pan Am Flight 151 (1951)
- Air France Flight 152 (1953)
- Air France Flight 178 (1953)
- KLM Flight 633 (1954)
- Air India Flight 300 (1955)
- El Al Flight 402 (1955)
- LAV Flight 253 (June 1956)
- TWA Flight 2 (1956)
- LAV Flight 253 (November 1956)
- KLM Flight 844 (1957)
- KLM Flight 607-E (1958)
- Lufthansa Flight 502 (1959)
- TWA Flight 891 (1959)
- Avianca Flight 671 (1960)
- Air France Flight 343 (1960)
- TWA Flight 266 (1960)
- Air France Flight 406 (1961)
- TWA Flight 529 (1961)
- IA Flight 201/8 (1961)
- FTL Flight 739 (1962)
- Paradise Airlines Flight 901A (1964)
- EAL Flight 853 (1965)
- LANSA Flight 501 (1966)
45°49′59″N 6°51′35″E / 45.83306°N 6.85972°E / 45.83306; 6.85972