The unexplained mystery behind Homi Bhabha's death

New Delhi: Homi Jehangir Bhabha, born October 30, 1909 was an Indian nuclear physicist who played a major role in the development of the Indian atomic energy programme and is considered to be the father of India's nuclear program. He died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc in January 1966. Conspiracy theories point to a sabotage by the CIA intended at impeding India's nuclear program, but his death still remains a mystery. The Boeing 707, named “Kanchenjunga”, operated on a flight from Mumbai to London via Delhi, Beirut and Geneva. At 07:00 GMT the pilot reported reaching FL190 to Geneva ACC. He was told to maintain that flight level “unless able to descend VMC one thousand on top”. The pilot confirmed this and added that they were passing abeam Mont Blanc. The controller noted that the flight wasn't abeam Mont Blanc yet and radioed “you have 5 miles to the Mont Blanc”, to which the pilot answered with “Roger.” Flight 101 then started to descend from FL190 until it struck the Mont Blanc at an elevation of 15585 feet. All 11 crew members and 106 passengers died. This was the first accident for a scheduled flight of Air India and was recorded as the 2nd worst airlines disaster of that time, and still remains the 5th worst. One of the victims included chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha, who was on his way to Vienna. The failure of a VOR noticed after leaving Beirut gave rise to the then widely aired theory of CIA sabotage. The glacier swallowed the remains of the crash; little was found then. But in the last decade the same glacier has been disgorging bits and pieces from the crash. Maybe sometime human remains will begin to be recovered. After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. Bhabha also encouraged research in electronics, space science, radio astronomy and microbiology. The famed radio telescope at Ooty, India was his initiative, and it became a reality in 1970. Bhabha has since been known as the “Father of India's Atomic Energy Programme”.