1966 Boeing 707 wreckage found in Alpine glacier

PARIS — As the Alpine glacier melted, a curious discovery emerged after decades beneath the ice: a plane wheel, a shoe — and an intact pouch of Indian diplomatic mail from 1966.

It all appears to be part of the wreckage from an Air India plane crash, a Boeing 707, that hikers and a rescue worker found this week on the slopes beneath Mont Blanc.

Rescuer Arnaud Christmann said the hikers alerted the tourist office in Chamonix that they had seen something beneath a glacier that looked like a wheel. He went to investigate and found pieces of the plane and “a gift from the mountain,” a bag containing Indian and English newspapers from 1966 and other documents, labeled “diplomatic mail.”

All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed.

The Indian Embassy in Paris confirmed the discovery but gave no details.

For more on the crash, click here.