French mountaineer finds gems believed to belong to passenger on one of two Air India planes that crashed in 1950 and 1966 
 
 It was an unexpected find for the young French alpinist as he approached the summit of Mont Blanc. Poking out of the ice and snow on the shoulder of western Europe's highest mountain was a metal box containing precious gems – including emeralds, rubies and sapphires – worth hundreds of thousands of euros that had lain hidden for about 50 years. 
 
 The precious stones, around 100 in total, were neatly packed into sachets, some marked with "Made in India". It soon became clear that the historic haul, which has since been valued by jewellers at up €246,000 (£205,000), had belonged to someone on one of two Air India flights that crashed in 1950 and 1966, killing a total of more than 100 people. 
 
 The climber carried the treasure down the mountain and straight to local police. The prefect's office is now contacting Indian authorities to see if it is possible to trace the owner or their relatives. 
 
 "You can say the climber who made this find is someone very honest," local gendarme chief Sylvain Merly said. 
 
 "He saw very well that what he had in his hands was something very valuable, realising straight away that it was precious stones that had been very carefully wrapped. 
 
 "He was a mountaineer, he knew the history of the two plane crashes here and realised that this find was likely linked to those crashes. "Maybe he didn't want to keep something that had belonged to someone who died. So he handed it in." 
 
 Merly said the find was made on the Bossons glacier, which had often spewed to the surface "all sorts of remnants" from the Air India crashes. These have included newspapers from the flights, letters, shoes, cables and fragments of the planes, or even human remains. 
 
 Last year, two climbers on the glacier discovered a well-preserved bag of Indian diplomatic mail neatly marked "Ministry of External Affairs" that had been on the Boeing 707 flight from Mumbai to New York that crashed near the summit of Mont Blanc on a January morning in 1966 . 
 
 That crash killed all 11 crew and 106 passengers, including the pioneer of India's nuclear programme, Homi Jehangir Bhaba. The plane hit the mountain just below the summit after its experienced pilot had radioed confirming everything was okay, and was expected to land at Geneva airport in Switzerland to refuel. 
 
 The cause of the crash was never fully established. The mail bag, found 46 years later by a mountain rescue worker and a fellow climber in 2012, was handed back to the Indian government. 
 
 In 1950, another Air India flight, a four-motor propeller plane, crashed near the same spot killing 48 passengers and crew as it was expected to land at Geneva. 
 
 The prefect's office of Savoie will now contact the Indian authorities to try to return the jewels to the family of the original owner. It is thought that the jewels are more likely to have come from the 1966 crash. The local French paper, the Dauphiné Libéré reported that if an owner is not found, under French law, the jewels could be given back to the climber, who has not been named. 
 
 Mont Blanc, hailed as one of the world's most beautiful mountains, also has a deadly history of dangerous storms and fatal avalanches. 
 
 Arnaud Christmann, one of the men who found the diplomatic mail last year, warned it could spark a "gold rush". 
 
 He said he was worried inexperienced climbers might be tempted to try to seek their fortune on the glacier, which is easy to access but dangerous. ||||| A French mountain climber stumbled upon a case of dozens of cut jewels, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars _ believed to be debris from one of two Air India crashes decades ago, police said. 
 
 Police commander Sylvain Merly of France's Savoie region said the experienced Mont Blanc climber, who asked to stay anonymous, found the box marked "Made in India" while scaling one of the peak's glaciers and turned it in on Sept. 9. Authorities hope to find someone connected with its owner, who is presumed to have been a passenger on one of the two jets that crashed in 1950 or 1966. 
 
 Merly said Thursday the metal box, slightly smaller than a shoe box, was filled with small bags of loose jewels, mostly emeralds and sapphires. Merly said debris from the Air India crashes regularly rises to the surface on Mont Blanc. 
 
 "Things come up from the glaciers," Merly said. "They're always moving." 
 
 Merly said the climber's decision to turn over the box immediately "means that there are still honest people." 
 
 "He could have kept them but he chose to turn them in because he knew they belonged to someone who probably perished," Merly said. 
 
 It wasn't immediately clear what would happen to the jewels if nobody claimed them. ||||| Albertville (France) (AFP) - A French climber scaling a glacier off Mont Blanc got more than satisfaction for his efforts when he stumbled across a treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires that had been buried for decades. 
 
 The jewels, estimated to be worth up to 246,000 euros ($332,000), lay hidden in a metal box that was on board an Indian plane that crashed in the desolate landscape some 50 years ago. 
 
 The climber turned the haul in to local police. 
 
 "This was an honest young man who very quickly realised that they belonged to someone who died on the glacier," local gendarmerie chief Sylvain Merly told AFP. 
 
 "He could have kept them but he preferred to give them to the police," Merly said, adding that the climber stumbled upon the box earlier this month and that some of the sachets containing the precious stones bore the stamp 'Made in India.' 
 
 French authorities are contacting their Indian counterparts to trace the owner or heirs of the jewels. 
 
 Under French law, the jewellery could be handed over to the mountaineer if these are not identified, Merly said. 
 
 Two Air India planes crashed into Mont Blanc in 1950 and in 1966. Climbers routinely find debris, baggage and human remains. 
 
 In September last year, India took possession of a bag of diplomatic mail from the Kangchenjunga, a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai which crashed on the southwest face of Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966. 
 
 The crash killed 117 people including the pioneer of India's nuclear programme, Homi Jehangir Bhabha.
– A very honest mountain climber in the French Alps has stumbled upon an amazing find: a small box crammed with emeralds, sapphires, and other gems, reports the AP. The loot has been valued at about $330,000, but the anonymous climber handed it over to police upon his descent from Mont Blanc, reports the Guardian. Authorities speculate the jewels belonged to a passenger aboard one of two Air India flights that crashed decades ago—one in 1950 and the other in 1966. They will now try to figure out who that was so they can give the treasure to relatives. The climber found the box, labeled "Made in India," while scaling one of the mountain's glaciers. "He saw very well that what he had in his hands was something very valuable, realizing straight away that it was precious stones that had been very carefully wrapped," says a local police official. "Maybe he didn't want to keep something that had belonged to someone who died." If police can't trace the original owner, the jewels could go back to the French climber, reports AFP. (Closer to home, an explorer says there's sunken treasure off Massachusetts.)