A Frenchman claimed on Tuesday he had found one of the engines of the Malabar Princess, an ill-fated Indian aircraft that crashed on the French peak of Mont Blanc in 1950.

The Air India plane went down on 3 November 1950, a few metres from the summit of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain at almost 5000 metres, killing all 48 people on board.

Daniel Roche (56) an aviation collector from Lyon in southeast France made the discovery during a climbing expedition near Chamonix in September, partly buried in a glacier.

"There is no doubt about it, this comes from the 'Lockheed L-749 Constellation'," he said.

The 2500-horse, 18-cylinder engine, weighing several hundred kilograms, was to be airlifted by helicopter to Chamonix on Tuesday, he said.

A real estate agent, Roche has amassed more than a tonne of wreckage from Mont Blanc over the past four years, including a propeller and an air hostess handbag from the Malabar Princess.

One of his friends spotted another of the aircraft's four engines in 1998, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, but never managed to recover it.

AFP