In 2013, a French mountain climber ascending Mont Blanc came across something other than stunning views; a box containing about $340,000 worth of precious stones. The gems—an assortment of emeralds, sapphires, and rubies—are believed to have been from an Air India flight that crashed on the mountain in 1966, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The climber handed over the gems to the authorities, as required by French law. After efforts to trace the rightful owners of the gems turned unsuccessful, the climber, who was unnamed by the AFP, was rewarded with half of its worth. The government in Chamonix, France, will retain the other half.

Remains from Air India crash of 1966

At 15,777 ft, Mont Blanc Massif, a mountain range in the Alps is the highest point in western Europe and straddles the border between France and Italy. The area has claimed two separate Air India flights, one in 1950 and the second in 1966. All 117 passengers and crew members were killed in the 1966 crash of the Kanchenjunga, a plane named, somewhat ironically, after the world’s third-highest mountain.

The plane was bound to New York from Mumbai and crashed on its way to Geneva from Beirut. Among the passengers was Homi Jehangir Bhabha, a nuclear physicist regarded as the father of the Indian nuclear program. His presence onboard has often given rise to conspiracy theories about the crash. Global warming has caused Mont Blanc’s Bosson glacier to reced, exposing more of the wreckage from the 1966 crash.

The discovery of the precious cargo from a mountain plane crash is unusual but not unheard of. In the US, a small plane loaded with 6,000 pounds of marijuana crashed in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains above Yosemite National park in 1976, supplying enterprising climbers with free weed for years.