Newspapers form 50 years ago and 7000km away have been recovered from a French Glacier. Photo / Jacques Dilles, Unsplash; Facebook
Newspapers form 50 years ago and 7000km away have been recovered from a French Glacier. Photo / Jacques Dilles, Unsplash; Facebook
About a dozen frozen Indian newspapers have emerged from a melting glacier on Mont Blanc, dating back to 1966.
Local café owner Timothee Mottin came across a cache of newspapers on a trip up the nearby icefield. The Bossons Glacier on the mountain's north face is receding. It's not unusual for objects swallowed by the glacier – Europe's largest – to be regurgitated years later, Mottin told local press.
However, it is unusual to be able to identify these items and be able to pin them to a specific moment in time.
The Bosson Glacier at the foot of Mt Blanc. Photo / Supplied, Facebook.
In this case, the titles had been printed 54 years ago and 7000km away, in India.
The election of Indra Gandhi – India's first female PM – is announced on the front pages.
"Well, they are a bit torn, but in a very good state nonetheless," he told reporters from CNN.
"As the glacier is advancing, it brings with it objects from the top of the Mont Blanc."
Cafe owner, Timothee Mottin has uncovered a collection of artefacts from the crash. Photo / Supplied, Facebook
The 10 or so papers include copies of the National Herald and Economic Times and date from January 20 to 21, 1966. This leads Mottin to believe that they most likely arrived on an ill-fated Air India flight that crashed into the side of Mont Blanc.
On January 24 1966, an Air India Boeing 707 was lost on the side of the French mountain killing 117 on board. His cafe has a collection of objects believed, to be from this incident.
There are the remains at least two Air India aircraft in the glacier. In 1950 Air India flight 245 was also lost on Mont Blanc killing 48.
An Air India Boeing 707-400, similar to the one involved in the fatal 1966 air crash. Photo / Ralf Manteufel, Wikimedia Commons
It's from this earlier crash that, in 2013, the most remarkable discovery was made to date. A climber reclaimed a box of precious stones from the ice. The collection of sapphires, rubies and emeralds was estimated to be worth €246,000 - or almost half a million New Zealand dollars – within a box stamped "made in India".
Letters and documents recovered from the glacier come from two historic air crashes in 1966 and 1950. Photo / Supplied, Facebook
While Mottin's discovery is not quite as valuable, he is proud of the find. Once dried out, the newspapers will go on display in his café Cabane du Cerro, in Chamonix.
The café near the bottom of the glacier holds a collection of reclaimed items from the glacier and has held events for visitors to learn more about the crashes.
'Sad': An old photo recovered from the glacier shared to the cafe's social media. Photo / Supplied, Facebook
