Paris - Hopes have risen of solving the 54-year-old mystery of the wartime disappearance of the author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, following the recovery of an engraved identity bracelet from the Mediterranean seabed.
The bracelet was embedded in a piece of metal that may have come from the French airforce plane he was flying on July 31st, 1944, before disappearing over the southern coastline. SaintExupery's name was engraved beside that of his South American wife, Consuelo, and his American publishers, Reynal and Hitchcock.
Scientists are examining the piece of metal to see if it comes from the P-38 Lightning reconnaissance aircraft which SaintExupery flew on a final mission from Corsica to the Rhone Valley near the chateau where he spent much of his childhood.