What happened
On the early morning of November 3, 1954, an Air India Lockheed Constellation, known as 'Malabar Princess', departed Cairo-Almaza Airport at 02:09 local time. The flight was part of a larger international service spanning from Bombay to London, with a scheduled stop in Geneva. On board were 40 passengers, consisting of Indian and Pakistani marines traveling to Newcastle upon Tyne, along with a crew of 8.
While cruising at 15,500 feet, approximately 20 minutes before the expected arrival at Geneva-Cointrin Airport, the flight crew reported to air traffic control that they were positioned over Grenoble. In response to this report, the radio officer at Geneva requested the aircraft switch to the 333 kHz frequency for a direction-finding verification. The aircraft did not respond to this request and subsequently vanished.
Following the failure of the plane to arrive at its destination, search and rescue operations were launched by French, Swiss, and Italian authorities. Two days later, on Sunday, November 5, wreckage was located at an altitude of 4,671 meters on the Rocher de la Tournette, situated roughly 300 meters from the Vallot Refuge. The impact caused the aircraft to disintegrate, resulting in 48 fatalities.
Findings
Investigations into the disappearance concluded that the crew had miscalculated their geographic position. Although the pilot believed the aircraft was overflying Grenoble, it was actually located approximately 111 km northeast of the city, positioned directly above the Mont-Blanc mountain range.
Several contributing factors were identified, including a strong westerly wind and the lack of surveillance radar at the Geneva-Cointrin area control center at that time. Navigation relied on medium-frequency direction finding and shortwave transmitters, which were not always active. The flight path chosen by Air India—passing through Nice, Gap, and Grenoble—relied on broadcast stations that did not operate 24 hours a day. Ultimately, the accident was determined to be a controlled flight into terrain driven largely by unfavorable wind conditions.