Mont Blanc; precious stones found over 50 years after aircraft crashes.

Posted on September 26, 2013 by bill

Société

Mont-Blanc : le trésor du “Malabar Princess” retrouvé ?

Un jeune alpiniste a découvert début septembre une boîte contenant pour plusieurs dizaines de milliers d’euros de pierres précieuses sur le glacier des Bossons, sur le Mont-Blanc. Deux avions indiens se sont crashés à cet endoit par le passé : le “Malabar Princess” en 1950 et le Boeing 707 “Kangchenjunga” en 1966. Le jeune alpiniste a remis sa trouvaille à la gendarmerie.

Traduction/Translation par/by Bill Nelson

A young alpiniste has found, at the beginning of September, a box containing several tens of thousands of euros worth of precious stones on the Bossons glacier on Mont Blanc. Two Indian aircraft crashed in the area while enroute: the “Malabar Princess” in 1950 and the Boeing 707 “Kangchenjunga” in 1966. The young alpiniste brought his findings to the gendarmes.

C’est en évoluant sur le glacier des Bossons début septembre qu’un jeune alpiniste d’une vingtaine d’années est tombé sur une boîte métallique. A l’intérieur, des émeraudes, des saphirs et des rubis. Les pierres précieuses étaient enfermées dans de petits sachets dont certains étaient estampillés “Made in India”.

Redescendu à Bourg-Saint-Maurice, le jeune homme a ramené le magot aux gendarmes savoyards. D’après un joaillier local, les pierres sont évaluées entre 130.000 et 246.000 euros.

The movement of the Bossons glacier allowed the young alpiniste find the metal box. Inside were emeralds, saphires and rubies. They were in a bag stamped “Made in India”. When he climbed down to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, the young man handed the nest egg (magot) to the Haute Savoie gendarmes. A local jeweller has valued them between €130,000 and €246,000. Extra info: The authorities will endevour to find the owners, and if no success the stones could be returned to the finder. Both aircraft crashed at 4,600 mtrs altitude approximately and close to one another, but sixteen years apart. 55 and 113 people died respectively in both crashes. They’ve been giving up bits and pieces of metal and personal belongings periodically for over 50 years.

About bill

Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer. The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013. Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI. Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug 2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website. But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien. The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50. Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea. Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
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