Paris: A mountain climber has discovered a stash of Indian jewels in the French Alps which are believed to have been onboard Air India flight that crashed half a century ago. The shoe-box size metal container with emeralds, rubies and sapphires neatly packed into sachets, some marked 'Made in India', was discovered off Mont Blanc in the Alps. The historic haul, valued by French jewellers at around 205,000 pounds, is believed to have belonged to someone on one of two Air India flights that crashed off the world-famous mountain in 1950 and 1966, killing over 100 people.

French authorities are now in the process of contacting their Indian counterparts to determine the jewels' rightful owners. French media reported that if an owner is not found, under French law, the jewels could be given to the climber, who was not identified by the authorities. Climbers in the region have frequently found debris and remains from the two Air India aircraft over the years. On November 3, 1950 the Malabar Princess, an Air India plane, crashed on Mont Blanc killing 58 people on board. And 16 years later, on 24 January 1966, a Boeing 707 Air India plane en route from Mumbai to New York, came down at the same location.

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 crash killed all 11 crew and 106 passengers, including the pioneer of India's nuclear programme, Homi Jehangir Bhaba. The cause of the crash was never fully established but 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.