Air India Flight 101
 | |
| Date | 24 January 1966 |
|---|---|
| Location | Mont Blanc, France |
| Deaths | 117 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Interest of | Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety |
| Interests | India/Nuclear Weapons |
| Description | A plane crash in France in 1966 killing 117. Officially ruled an accident, but sabotage by the CIA to assassinate Homi J. Bhabha and delay the Indian nuclear programme was suspected. |
Air India Flight 101 was a scheduled Air India passenger flight from Bombay to London. On 24 January 1966, it crashed into Mont Blanc in France, killing all on board.[1]
It was officially ruled an accident, but sabotage by the CIA to assassinate Homi J. Bhabha and delay the Indian nuclear programme was suspected.
Official narrative
Air India Flight 101 was a scheduled flight from Bombay to London; and on the day of the accident was operated by a Boeing 707, registration VT-DMN and named Kanchenjunga.[2] The Pilot-In-Command was an 18-year veteran, Captain Joe T. D'Souza.[3] After leaving Bombay, it had made two scheduled stops, at Delhi and Beirut, and was en route to another stop at Geneva.[2] At flight level 190 (19,000 feet; 5,800 m), the crew was instructed to descend for Geneva International Airport after the aircraft had passed Mont Blanc.[2] The pilot, thinking that he had passed Mont Blanc, started to descend and flew into the Mont Blanc massif in France near the Rocher de la Tournette, at an elevation of 4,750 metres (15,584 ft).[2][4] All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed.[4][5]
Coincidentally it was near the exact spot Air India Flight 245 crashed in 1950.[6]
50 years later frozen bodies were discovered in the mountains[7] along with other historic artefacts from the plane; like mail bags, newspapers and letters.[8]
Victims
Among those on board was Homi J. Bhabha, an Indian nuclear scientist who chaired the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
Gregory Douglas, who claimed to have conducted telephone conversations with former CIA operative Robert Crowley in 1993, published a book titled Conversations with the Crow in 2013. According to Douglas, Crowley claimed that the CIA was responsible for assassinating Homi Bhabha and Prime Minister Shastri in 1966, thirteen days apart, to thwart India's nuclear programme.[9]
Douglas asserted that Crowley told him a bomb in the cargo section of the plane exploded mid-air, bringing down the commercial Boeing 707 airliner in Alps with few traces. Per Douglas, Crowley said: "We could have blown it up over Vienna but we decided the high mountains were much better for the bits and pieces to come down on".[10]
References
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/aircrashinvestigation/comments/aybtv1/air_india_flight_101_1967_boeing_707_should_be/
- ↑ a b c d https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19660124-0
- ↑ Haine, Colonel Edgar A. (2000). Disaster In The Air. London: Cornwall Books. p. 147. ISBN 0-8453-4777-2.
- ↑ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20130925072928/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200293.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160724221328/http://www.airwhiners.net/whine_cheez/20040726.htm
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160724221328/http://www.airwhiners.net/whine_cheez/20040726.htm
- ↑ https://theprint.in/report/the-theories-india-nuclear-energy-pioneer-homi-bhabha/31233/
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26436090
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211028161308/https://www.news18.com/news/india/has-a-swiss-climber-traced-mystery-crash-that-killed-homi-bhabha-father-of-indias-atom-bomb-1477249.html
- ↑ Douglas, Gregory (2013). Conversations with the Crow. Basilisk Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 9780991175208.
