Mont Blanc: Mountaineers are allowed to keep half of the gemstones found

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Bossons Glacier on the French side of the Mount Blanc massif (symbolic picture)

Photo: Philippe Clément / Arterra / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Eight years after valuable gemstones were found on a Mont Blanc glacier, the stones were shared between the finder and the local authorities. "This week the stones were divided into two equal parts with a value of around 150,000 euros each," said the mayor of Chamonix, Eric Fournier. He was "very happy" that the case had now come to an end.

Fournier praised the honesty of the mountaineer who made the find in September 2013 when he was around 20 years old on a mountain tour on the Bossons Glacier and delivered it to the gendarmerie.

The young French noticed a metal box on the glacier, which is more than 4,300 meters above the town of Chamonix.

The gemstones were packed in small bags labeled "Made in India".

These were emeralds, sapphires and rubies, which were believed to have landed on the glacier when an Indian plane crashed more than half a century ago.

Owners or heirs could no longer be determined

Two Indian passenger planes crashed into the 4810 meter high Mont Blanc in 1950 and 1966.

58 people were killed in the first crash, 117 in the second. Nobody survived the crashes.

Since then, aircraft parts, suitcases and human remains have been found there time and again.

It is believed that the metal box with the gemstones was on board an Air India plane that crashed into the Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966 at an altitude of 4,750 meters and shattered.

The owner or heir could no longer be determined.

kig / dpa / afp