To lose Dr Homi Bhabha is a terrible blow for the nation, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said as she paid tributes to the architect of India’s atomic energy programme after his sudden death in a plane crash in France.

“We mourn a great son of India,” the PM said, calling Bhabha’s demise a “personal loss” for her.

The sense of loss was deepened as the crash on January 24, 1966, came just days after Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent, only a few hours after signing the Tashkent Declaration.

Bhabha was 56 when he died . The Air India plane crashed near the peak of a mist-shrouded Mont Blanc, killing all 106 passengers and 11 crew members aboard.

The wreckage and bodies were scattered for miles over the snow-covered Alps. Scorched mail from the plane was found as far as five miles away on the Italian side of the peak.

The Boeing 707 Kanchenjunga was a few minutes behind schedule as it was preparing to make its descent.

But the captain of the plane, JT ‘dSousa, who was one of the airline’s most experienced pilots, had radioed the control tower a few minutes earlier to report that his instruments were working fine and the aircraft was flying at 19,000ft — at least 3,000ft higher than the Mont Blanc summit.

The plane crashed into the mountain seconds after receiving permission to land at Geneva’s Cointrin airport at 8am.

Sixteen years ago, an Air India Constellation flying from Cairo to Geneva crashed near the same spot, killing 48 passengers — Indian and Pakistani marines — and crew.

Dr Bhabha, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, was to have left for Geneva a day earlier and had booked his passage on the plane which left Bombay on January 22, but changed his plans at the last minute.

He was on his way to Vienna to attend a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Atomic Energy Commission.

Besides Dr Bhabha, Regional Director in Europe for Air India G Bertoli, General Manager of Burmah Shell MP PCR Coates, a member of the trade delegation from British Guiana A Kissoon, 11 members of a goodwill delegation visiting India from Belgium, and 46 seamen of the South India Shipping Corporation on their way to Paris to bring out a ship, were on board the flight.

The deceased included 12 women, two air hostesses and two children. Captain JT ‘dSousa was a crack pilot of Air India who once flew out Pope Paul VI from Rome to Bombay for the eucharistic congress.

The Boeing hit the mountain at a huge rock shoulder called La Tournette, not far from the Vallot Refuge, the last Alpine height before the Mt Blanc summit.

French mountain rescue helicopter pilots landed near the main wreckage about three hours after the crash. Heavy snowfall hit the area around 8am — about the time the plane was due for a stopover at Geneva.

Local officials speculated that the crash may have been caused by snowfall, coupled with the heavy mist on Mt Blanc. At -20°C, the bitter cold made the rescue operation arduous.The wreckage was spread over more than one and a half kilometre. Rescue experts said the plane’s pilot might have seen the mountain loom up but was unable to avoid the crash.

A Chamonix guide, Gerard Devouassoux, one of the first persons to make a detailed survey of the disaster scene, said: “Another 15 metres and the plane would have missed the rock. It made a huge crater in the mountain. Everything was completely pulverised. There were bits of bodies and wreckage everywhere. Nothing was identifiable except for a few letters and packets.”

The first rescue helicopter brought down some of the charred remains before abandoning operations for the night.

The circumstances of the crash raised the possibility of an explosion. Although carried objects were recovered miles away from the scene of the disaster, officials in Geneva said nothing could be determined yet.

“Mountain winds could have carried letters and smaller objects after the plane smashed into the mountain.” an official at Geneva’s Cointrin airport said.

“The wreckage indicates the possibility of explosion during the crash but not in the air,” the official said.