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. "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.' 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. "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. Under French law, the jewellery could be handed over to the mountaineer if these are not identified, Merly said. 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.
– 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.)