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AFP
Newspaper covers report the news of Indira Gandhi’s first electoral victory
Indian newspapers from 1966 have appeared in the French Alps, under the ice of a melted Mont Blanc glacier.
They are believed to have come from an Air India plane that crashed on January 24, 1966, killing all 117 people on board.
The first pages report on the historical election of Indira Gandhi, the first, and to this day, the only, prime minister.
The owner of a local restaurant found about a dozen documents, including the National Herald and the Economic Times.
Timothee Mottin, whose restaurant is near the Chamonix ski area, told the AFP news agency: “They are now drying but in very good condition. You can read them.”
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AFP
Timothee Mottin plans to display the newspapers at his restaurant near Chamonix
Once they have dried, he said, they will be displayed in his restaurant, as part of a collection of items from the accident he found over time.
The most valuable relic from the accident was found in 2013: a gemstone box including emeralds, sapphires, and rubies that was estimated to be worth between € 130,000 (£ 117,000; $ 147,000) and € 246,000 (£ 221,000; $ 279,000).
Rising global temperatures are causing the melting of mountain glaciers and the removal of polar ice sheets. Last September, authorities warned that part of the Planpincieux glacier at the Grandes Jorasses peak of Mont Blanc was vulnerable to collapse.
Air India Flight 101 was flying from Mumbai, then known as Bombay, to London when it crashed near the summit of Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966.
The flight had made two scheduled stops in Delhi and Beirut, Lebanon, and was on its way to another stop in Geneva, Switzerland.
However, during the descent to Geneva, the plane collided with the mountain, killing all 106 passengers and 11 crew members on board.
Who Was Indira Gandhi?
Indira Gandhi was the daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and after him she was the second-oldest prime minister in the country.
She held the post twice. Her first term lasted 11 years, but after a turbulent two-year state of emergency from 1975 to 1977, she called an election to reclaim her position, a move that led to her losing her seat.
Re-elected in January 1980, she remained in power until she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Her murder came after Operation Blue Star, an Indian military operation against Sikh militants in Punjab.
