A hand that is thought to be from a person killed in a plane crash 51 years ago was found in the French Alps.
Images VIA
Daniel Roche, who searches for human remains on the Bosson Glacier on Mont Blanc, discovered the perfectly preserved hand amongst other debris. This is the first time Roche has found any significant remains.
Back in 1966, an Air India Boeing 707 from Bombay to New York plummeted near the Mont Blanc summit, killing around 177 people. Another Air India flight crashed on the same mountain in 1950, where 48 people died. It is suspected that the hand could be traced back to a passenger on one of these flights.
Roche reckons it’s from the 1966 flight, as he also found one of the plane’s jet engines nearby.
The emergency services were called over to the site and they flew the remains down the mountain in a helicopter to be examined by experts. Hopefully they’ll figure out who the hand belongs to, although I’m not sure what the protocol is once this happens. Do they send it to the closest family member? I’m not sure they’d want such a grim reminder of their relative’s dramatic ending.
Maybe they could preserve it and use the DNA when scientists finally figure out how to fully clone humans.
