Mont Blanc climber finds $330,000 worth of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, other gems in metal box

Mont Blanc funseekers at the summit.
No one in this group found any jewels.

The find was made on the Bossons glacier, which occasionally regurgitates debris from two Air India flights that crashed in 1966 and 1950. About 100 gems were in the metal box, in sachets, some of which were marked "Made in India." The finder turned them in. They are thought to be from the 1966 crash.

     "You can say the climber who made this find is someone very honest," local gendarme chief Sylvain Merly said.
     The prefect's office of Savoie will now contact the Indian authorities to try to return the jewels to the family of the original owner. It is thought that the jewels are more likely to have come from the 1966 crash. The local French paper, the Dauphiné Libéré reported that if an owner is not found, under French law, the jewels could be given back to the climber, who has not been named.