There have been two major plane crashes on Mont Blanc, both Air India Flights, one in 1950 and one in 1966.
On November 3rd 1950 Air India Flight 245 had left Bombay and gone via Cairo aiming to land at Geneva on its ways to London. There were 40 passengers and 8 crew on board. They never made it to Geneva airport as the plane crashed into Mount Blanc while flying over France, close to the Swiss border. The last transmission has the plane flying at 4700 metres, but shortly after this the airplane crashed into the French side of Mont Blanc, an area called Rochers de la Tournette, which is at 4,677 metre. There were no survivors and no rescue effort could get near the area due to a bad storm until 2 days later.
Sixteen years later and another Air India flight on its way to New York also crashed into Mont Blanc. There were 117 people on board – 106 passengers and 11 crew. The wreckage was scattered across the south west side of the mountain about 427 metres below the summit. Unfortunately, if the place had been just 15 metres higher it would have cleared the large rock that it hit. As it was the only things that rescuers managed to recover were letters and the odd bag. Although surprisingly a few monkeys being carried to a scientific centre did survive and were found wandering in the snow. Similar to the crash in 1950, the pilot had radioed in a few minutes earlier to say everything was fine and in order and the plane was flying at 5,791 metres, at least 500 metres above the summit of the mountain. However, afterwards it did come out that the pilot had reported passing over Mont Blanc earlier than he should have and the radio controller corrected him, saying he had “5 miles to go”. The pilot apparently acknowledged this but still seemed to begin to descend too early. It is presumed that the pilot mis-understood the comments from the controller as meaning he had already passed over the ridge.
Mont Blanc means “White Mountain” and is the highest mountain in the Alps and in Western Europe. The total height of Mont Blanc actually changes year by year depending on how much snow is compacted onto the summit. The actual rock summit is at 4,792 metres and there is usually around a further 20 metres of snow on the top. It is now a popular climbing place, with 20,000 people climbing to the summit each year but also with several deaths due to avalanches and rock falls. In 2007 two portable toilets were even placed at 4,260 metres for climbers to use and stop the mountain being polluted by waste.
If you are flying into Geneva Airport and need an airport transport to one of the various ski resorts close by, contact www.theskibug.fr who do transfers to the Three Valleys ski resorts.