Homi J. Bhabha, regarded as the father of India's nuclear programme, is a larger-than-life figure in the country's history. From being the architect of India's 'three-stage' nuclear energy programme to being a pioneer of research to initiating studies on atomic weapons capabilities, Bhabha had numerous achievements to his credit.
The untimely death of Bhabha in an Air India plane crash on Mount Blanc in the French Alps in January 1966 was considered a massive blow to India's scientific advancement. A total of 106 passengers and 11 crew died in the crash of Air India flight 101, which was named Kanchenjunga, on January 24, 1966.
The Kanchenjunga crashed in almost exactly the same spot on Mount Blanc as an Air India flight 16 years before. On November 3, 1950, Air India flight 245 crashed on Mount Blanc, killing 48 passengers and crew. Like the wreckage of Kanchenjunga, the bodies of the victims of the Malabar Princess crash have not been recovered.
On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a memorial at Nid d'Aigle, at the foot of Mount Blanc, in honour of the victims of the two Air India crashes. According to the Deccan Herald, Bossonet Marbrerie, a prominent architectural firm in France, has designed the monument at Nid d'Aigle.
Kanchenjunga crash
The Air India flight, a Boeing 707, was flying from Mumbai (then Bombay) to London, and was preparing to land at Geneva when it crashed. Bhabha was one of the 100 Indian nationals on the passengers' list; the remaining six were British. The bodies of the none of the victims were discovered.
At that time, media reports claimed the Air India flight had crashed because the pilot had miscalculated his height with respect to Mount Blanc. However, in later years, conspiracy theories have emerged that the CIA may have sabotaged the Air India flight to kill Bhabha in a bid to derail India's nuclear programme. The conspiracy theorists quote statements by Bhabha that India could develop a nuclear bomb within 18 months if the government gave the go-ahead.
Malabar Princess crash
Air India flight 245 was a Lockheed Constellation that was flying from Bombay to London, with stopovers in Cairo and Geneva. Ironically, the Malabar Princess had flown the very first international flight of Air India on June 8, 1948, on the same route.
While the Malabar Princess crash is arguably less remembered nowadays, compared with the crash that killed Homi J. Bhabha, the former has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to literature and cinema. It was the basis for the French novel La neige en deuil by Henri Troyat and inspired the movies The Mountain (1956) and the eponymous French movie Malabar Princess (2004). The crash of Malabar Princess even figures in the plot of Amelie, the critically acclaimed French movie of 2001.
