Preserved hand of 1966 plane crash victim found on mountain

Frozen human remains thought to belong to passengers from a plane crash 51 years ago have been found on a mountain in the French Alps.

A perfectly preserved hand was among the body parts found by Daniel Roche, who combs the Bosson Glacier on Mont Blanc looking for human remains.

See also: British climber finds body of friend at Everest summit

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Daniel has spent years searching, but this is the first time he has found any remains, including the hand and the upper part of a leg, reports the Metro.

It's believed the remains belong to passengers from one of two Air India planes that crashed in the area many years ago.

The first flight crashed into the mountain in 1950, killing 48 people.

The other crashed near Mont Blanc's summit in January 1966 while flying from Mumbai to New York. All 117 people on board were killed.

According to the Guardian, Roches said the remains found might be that of a female passenger from the 1966 flight. He also found one of the plane's four jet engines.

He contacted emergency services in the Chamonix valley, and the remains were flown by helicopter down the mountain for examination.

Stephane Bozon, of the gendarmerie, said: "These remains are probably not from the same person. They are probably from passengers, but between the two aircrafts, it's difficult to say."

The news comes just days after the frozen bodies of a couple who went missing in the Alps 75 years ago were found lying near each other, preserved in a receding glacier in the Diablerets massif in the Swiss Alps.

A DNA search confirmed the couple as Marcelin Dumoulin, a 40-year-old shoemaker, and his wife Francine, a 37-year-old school teacher.