Air India Flight 245
Lockheed L-749A Constellation · Controlled flight into terrain in poor weather
From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) to London Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 48 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 48
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Lockheed L-749A Constellation
- Flight
- AI245
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-749
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- VT-CQP
- Operator
- Air India
- Onboard fatalities
- 48
- Route
- From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM)To London Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Air India Flight 245 was a scheduled Air India passenger flight from Bombay to London via Cairo and Geneva. On the morning of 3 November 1950, the Lockheed L-749A Constellation serving the flight crashed into Mont Blanc, France, while approaching Geneva. All 48 aboard were killed.
The plane operating the flight was named Malabar Princess, registered as VT-CQP. It was piloted by Captain Alan R. Saint, 34, and co-pilot V. Y. Korgaokar and was carrying 40 passengers and 8 crew. The flight navigator was Raghuram Iyengar, a resident of Matunga, Mumbai. While over France, descending towards Geneva Airport, the flight crashed into the French Alps in stormy weather, killing all on board.
Accident
The airplane hit the face of the Rocher de la Tournette at a height of 4677 m, on the French side of Mont Blanc. Stormy weather prevented immediate rescue efforts; debris was located by a Swiss plane on 5 November, and rescue parties reached the site two days later. There were no survivors. The last transmission from the aircraft, received by controllers at Grenoble and Geneva, was "I am vertical with Voiron, at 4700 meters altitude." at 10:43 a.m.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Air India Flight 245” (revision 1364984525, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Air India Flight 245
- Article
- Air India Flight 245
- Revision
- 1364984525 · 2026-07-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q531334
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Air India Flight 245" (page 23250600, revision 1364984525)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.