Incredible Story of the Diplomatic Mail Bag Found on Mont Blanc Continues
Family Connection for Bag Recovered 46 Years After Air India Crash
In August a diplomatic mail bag was found by a mountain guide on Mont-Blanc near to where an Air India flight crashed in 1966. The discovery of the extremely well-preserved bag after 46 years on the mountain was an incredible story within itself, but what happened to the bag on its journey back to India has made for an even more intriguing tale.
Upon retrieval by a mountain rescue worker on Mont Blanc, the diplomatic bag was handed over to the Indian government and an embassy representative was sent to Chamonix to bring the bag back home to India. En route, it passed through the hands of Chandan Ramesh Barooah - an Air India representative - whose father was one of the 117 victims of the Air India plane crash on Mont Blanc in 1966. Like his son, Chandan's father had also been an Air India employee and was actually serving as a flight engineer on the ill-fated plane 46 years previously. Chandan was just 18 months old when his father died on Mont Blanc.
Over the years, Chandan had made several journeys to Mont-Blanc to try and visit the crash site to pay tribute to his father yet it was only his curiosity upon being handed the bag by an Indian Embassy official in Paris that led to him discovering its significance. Chandan was merely informed that the bag was of 'historical value' but pushed for more details and in so doing discovered this incredible coincidence.
The bag which contained some well-preserved newspapers, photographs and other documents is now safely back in India and being looked after by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
