most of the mysteries surrounding Stardusts disappearance, In 2000 the Argentine Army detachment found the debris scattered over one square kilometer, a relatively small area, so the bomb theory was discarded. The Stardust could not be raised and no wreckage could be found. For many years, people wondered if she'd survived the massacre that killed the rest of her family. Terms of Use/Privacy Policy. Furthermore, aircraft were usually referred to by their registration, which in Stardusts case was G-AGWH, rather than the more romantic monikers the airline had given them. In 1947 the official report into Stardusts disappearance had this much harder in Morse code.-.. / . It was hard work at this elevation, and the Army had supplies for only thirty-six hours. If spacing between letters is hard to distinguish, its clear to see how some characters can be accidentally mistaken for others, leading to incorrect words or phrases. Didn't the test Tudor flight crash because the aileron controls had been reversed (e.g trying to roll right rolled the aircraft left) or am I thinking of a different British test aircraft crash. People all over the world had reported hundreds of flying saucer sightings during the last two weeks of June 1947. / -.-. Some of you watching may have already noticed that when you rearrange the letters in STENDEC, youre able to form the word DESCENT. enigmatic radio message was meant to mean. Sign in to continue reading. French air safety investigators concluded in a 2012 report that the tragedy likely had been caused by an odd cascade of errors. You can post your own LGF Pages simply by registering a free account with us. (0), By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. "STENDEC Solved." The North Texas Skeptic. (STENDEC) This one individual in particular mentioned that he asked his 80 year old father, who remembers hearing the phrase being used often by the radio operator on his ship when he served in the Merchant Marine during WWII. They had been . Banksters, Peasants, and Kim Jong Un's Grandpa: A Parable for Our Times. attention, and another signing off. Morse code experts we have consulted believe that it is highly unlikely / -.. / . Once again, no distress signal was received. You can post your own LGF Pages simply by registering a free account with us. Outside of the music world, Joel is a best-selling author, releasing The Realists Guide to a Successful Music Career, which features Kris Williams is a lesbian, and that means she wont be seeing her son anytime soon. Some politicians have irresponsibly suggested that every new IRS employee will be a gun-toting enforcement agent. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. It also seems clear that the message was not anticipating a crash, As might be inferred from that lineage, it was uncomfortable, noisy, and cramped. STENDEC Solved (Mystery message from 1947 Andes plane crash) By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie Weird December 2010 Views: 31,837 ntskeptics.org The "STENDEC mystery," referring to the cryptic message sent by a Lancastrian airliner before it vanished in the Andes, is a staple of the UFO culture. All trained morse operators have their own, distinct send rythm, which you quickly get to know. Thanks SK. See link for the answer to this 63 year old question. clear that STENDEC is not what the message was meant to say. It's possible that the desire to descend as soon as possible to a level at which the passengers could breathe normally may have factored into Star Dust's premature departure from a safe crossing altitude. "Santiago tower message now descending entering cloud" (or "Santiago The problem? - we are unable to respond to further suggestions about the meaning As the compressed snow turned to ice, the wreckage would have been incorporated into the body of the glacier, with fragments emerging many years later and much further down the mountain. Conspiracy Theory Watch: Don't Drink the Kool Aid. British Overseas Airways G-AGLX (the registration number) went down on March 23, 1946, and British Overseas Airways G-AGMF crashed on August 20. operator to scramble the message. Full video here breaking down the story - STENDEC - The World's Most Mysterious Morse Code [Transcript From Video Below] out very fast. It has taken two years to find relatives and carry out the necessary DNA tests. / - / . The crash was a result of controlled descent into terrain. Anagram Theory It has therefore been suggested that, in the absence of visual sightings of the ground due to the clouds, a navigational error could have been made as the aircraft flew through the jet streama phenomenon not well understood in 1947, in which high-altitude winds can blow at high speed in directions different from those of winds observed at ground level. This button leads to the main index of LGF Pages, our user-submitted articles. Explanations based in Morse code No trace of the missing Lancastrian aircraft, named Star Dust, could be found. / -.. / . The letter was not C. Nor were the first two letters of this strange message ST: / . [16] If the airliner, which had to cross the Andes mountain range at 24,000 feet (7,300m), had entered the jet-stream zonewhich in this area normally blows from the west and south-west, resulting in the aircraft encountering a headwindthis would have significantly decreased the aircraft's ground speed. If so, according to their timings, they had already passed Los Cerrillos, where they could have safely landed as intended, so this doesnt seem to make much sense either. that Morse transmissions were closing down. / -.-. Something like "We're completely screwed.". Iris Evans, who had previously served in the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens") as a chief petty officer, was the flight attendant. I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. Outside of the music world, Joel is a best-selling author, releasing The Realists Guide to a Successful Music Career, which features Kris Williams is a lesbian, and that means she wont be seeing her son anytime soon. The STENDEC mystery, referring to the cryptic message sent by a Lancastrian airliner before it vanished in the Andes, is a staple of the UFO culture. Her sisters, boyfriend and sons knew nothing of her illness until suddenly, during a family gathering in October 2018 at a diner in Reading The Online Photographer lead me to this article. (These individuals ignore the fact that almost any other triangle of a similar size, drawn anywhere else in the North Atlantic, would yield a similar if not greater number of disappearances.). They were so far off course they were trapped in the mountains struggling to survive for 72 days before they were rescued, and then only because of an incredible hike out of the mountains by two of the severely weakened survivors with no climbing gear or experience or any idea where they really were. of the station they wish to contact. The word simply has no meaning in any language, not even in Morse code. Could there be more to the story of Star Dusts crash? This was the case in 1947 when an airliner crashed in the Andes, killing everyone aboard. Why would With a diplomat on board, the press freely speculated that a bomb had exploded in mid-flight. A tower aircraft now descending entering cloud") A solution to the word "STENDEC" has not been found. For example, if you lose the first two dots in the word STENDEC, and rearrange the spacing of the letters, the word could instead be interpreted as ETA LA(E)TE, albeit with a rogue E thrown into the mix. For a more detailed explanation They included Palestinian, Swiss, German and British passengers, a diplomatic courier and the crew: the pilot Reginald Cooke, 44; first officer Norman Hilton Cooke, 39; radiotelegraph operator Dennis Harmer, 27; second officer Donald Checklin, 27; and Iris Evans. As for the Avro Tudor, its safety record was deplorable even at the time. Blast From the Past: The North Texas Skeptic, May 1999, Republican Senator Claims 'The Left' Will Start a Civil War Unless Federal Highway System Abolished, A Christian Health Nonprofit Saddled Thousands With Debt as It Built a Family Empire Including a Pot Farm, a Bank and an Airline, Popular Instagram Photographer Revealed as AI Fraud, Cutting IRS Funding Is a Gift to Americas Wealthiest Tax Evaders, Record 6,542 Guns Intercepted at US Airport Security in 22, Interview With Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm, US: Russia Has Committed Crimes Against Humanity in Ukraine, Joel Cummins Umphreys McGee Keyboard Rig - January 2023 [VIDEO], Oklahoma Judge Transfers Lesbian Moms Parental Rights to Her Sons Sperm Donor. by John . If one divides the same dots and dashes in STENDEC differently, the message reads: / . Morse '._._.' in other words 'EC' without the space. It was firstly noted that the Trans-Andean journey from Buenos Aires to Santiago can be taken via three routes: The Central (and most direct) via Mendoza, The Southern via Planchon and The Northern via San Juan. _.. . Ok, so that covers the theory of the mysterious phrase, but it doesnt answer the mystery of what happened to the plane. The most widely speculated of these phrases is the following: Severe Turbulence Encountered Now Descending Emergency Crash Landing. Ball lightning doesn't happen very often, so it hasn't been recorded under natural conditions. This theory is an easy one to break apart. Is that the one where they all started eating each other? Conspiracy Theory Watch: Don't Drink the Kool Aid. Well that was fascinating and, while kinda sad I'm not going to pretend is not kinda funny hearing you explain all the ways that the Tudor sucked shit. Its civil certificate of airworthiness (CofA) number 7282 was issued on 1 January 1946. ETA LATE sounds like a reasonable message a plane would communicate to a control tower, although in the context of the whole sentence, it contradicts the first part completely, as they were only four minutes away from their destination. That was Furthermore, the plane was flying at 24000 feet, which would have led the radio UFO magazine. three times.STENDEC/Stardust [17] One of the pilots recalled that "we had all been warned not to enter cloud over the mountains as the turbulence and icing posed too great a threat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa_EU5_gWrA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_BSAA_Avro_Lancastrian_Star_Dust_accident#cite_note-SAR_Technology_-_Aviation_Cold_Case_Response-22, https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/a-pilots-last-words-stendec/, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vanished/stendec.html, https://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/vanished.shtml, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/05/stendec-mystery/, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/sep/06/owenbowcott1v, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jul/08/2, http://www.sartechnology.ca/sartechnology/ST_STENDEC_ColdCase.htm, http://www.ntskeptics.org/2010/2010december/december2010.pdf, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosigns_for_Morse_code, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/sep/06/owenbowcott1. So apparently the mystery hasn't been solved, because I don't see anything in the article suggesting anyone understands what Stendec meant. between the letters). A faulty oxygen system cant be ruled Their discovery revived. communication was only possible at this time when the aircraft was I think the misinterpretation of the airport code is def the most plausible. On 2 August 1947, Star Dust, a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes. Sometimes These Enigmas Never Decipher. Each letter in morse code consists of a number of unique dots and dashes, so to scramble a word like descent in such a way is highly unlikely, especially three times in succession. Plane and Pilot expands upon the vast base of knowledge and experience from aviations most reputable influencers to inspire, educate, entertain and inform. With the word not existing in international morse code, or any spoken language at the time, interpreting STENDEC has led to many varying theories. One was a British diplomatic courier, a King's Messenger. made with the control tower at Santiago. [13], A 2000 Argentine Air Force investigation cleared Cook of any blame, concluding that the crash had resulted from "a heavy snowstorm" and "very cloudy weather", as a result of which the crew "were unable to correct their positioning". a new clue the truth is we will never know for sure what that final At 17.41 a Chilean Air Force Morse operator in Santiago picked up a message: ETA [estimated time of arrival] Santiago 17.45 hrs. - . Various people came up with intriguing, imaginative and sometimes was that a small rearrangement of the dots and dashes (for example Now the plane has been found we know that it wasnt spirited away The Theory This condition causes everything from mental confusion to loss of consciousness. One final mystery lay in the last message sent out by the Star Dust. The Theory Something about how the pilots were originally British Airways pilots and that Stendec actually meant something in British Airways terminology. With morse code being a binary combination of dots and dashes, something as simple as one or two incorrect inputs can make a drastic difference to how a word is interpreted. [6], A recovered propeller showed that the engine had been running at near-cruising speed at the time of the impact. Believers of this theory claim it stood for something like, Stardust tank empty, no diesel, expected crash, or, Santiago tower, emergency, now descending, entering cloud. Experts on Morse code are quick to call hogwash on this theory, however, saying that the crew would have never cryptically abbreviated an important message. Ball lightning. which is identical - although with different spacings - to EC. "STENDEC" in Morse code is: / - / . reception of the signal was loud and clear but that it was given STENDEC - Solved?! This made for interesting reading and a welcome diversion from the usual flood of depressing news. of Stardusts radio operator. Many people wrote pointing out that STENDEC is an anagram of descent. A person suffering hypoxia may possibly make the same mistake consistently three times in succession but is very unlikely to create an anagram of the intended word. . Investigators concluded that the crew, flying in a snowstorm against a powerful jet stream, must have become confused about their location and believed they were closer to their destination then they actually were, with the crash being the result of a controlled descent into terrain. The word All Rights Reserved Bennett finished his life as a supporter, and occasional candidate, for a variety of xenophobic and extremist political parties -- a sad end for one of the world's greatest pilots and air navigators of the 1930s and 1940s. Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images. The Avro Lancastrian was a civilian version of the wartime Lancaster heavy bomber. The Chilean radio operator at Santiago states that the Theories include everything from sabotage to aliens. / -. Perhaps STENDEC was an abbreviation for a much longer message, an acronym sent in a hurry due to being in a crunch for time. Not understanding the word "STENDEC" he queried it Its fate became one of the most puzzling aviation mysteries of its time. SCTI is the international airline code for Los Cerrillos Airport, and AR is a commonly used prosign for the word OUT, or End Of Transmission. Its certainly reasonable that they would have jumbled their message in a hypoxic state. INITIALS The problem here though is that, even if this was the case, it would be unusual for Harmer to use a phrase which was not internationally recognised, and only specifically known to allied participants of the war. Morse code which the Chilean Operator believed she received was: S T E N D E C. _ . It was also, as OP says, unpressurized, so that passengers as well as crew had to breathe supplemental oxygen through masks while above 15,000 feet. The theory is the pilot mistakenly plotted their course as if they were leaving from a different airport, and it led to them crashing into a mountain. But before that, to help understand the [11], In 2000, an Argentine Army expedition found additional wreckageincluding a propeller and wheels (one of which had an intact and inflated tyre)and noted that the wreckage was well localised, a fact which pointed to a head-on impact with the ground, and which also ruled out a mid-air explosion. Discussion STENDEC Solved (Mystery message from 1947 Andes plane crash) By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, STENDEC - The Worlds Most Mysterious Morse Code, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_(RAF). normal for the Radio Operator to start the message by transmitting the name This page has been archived and is no longer updated. to say on the subject:The 17.41 signal was received by Santiago only 4 minutes before An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. that final message from the ill-fated Lancastrian. Star Dust, registration G-AGWH, an Avro 691 Lancastrian 3, departed Buenos Aires for Santiago at 13.46 on 2 August 1947. The unit had to finish quickly. The STENDEC mystery, referring to the cryptic message sent by a Lancastrian airliner before it vanished in the Andes, is a staple of the UFO culture. Tragically, that wasn't the last disaster in which Bennett and the Tudor were involved. Ball lightning is a potentially dangerous atmospheric electrical phenomenon. A common example of this would be SOS, which is the internationally recognised distress signal in morse code to call for help. The searchers discovered one propeller, its tips scarred and bent backward, indicating that the prop had been revolving when the Lancastrian plowed into the Tupungato glacier. At around 5:41pm, after transmitting routine communications to the plane as usual, the control tower at Los Cerrillos Airport in Santiago received this morse code message from Stardust: Perplexed by the final word in the telegram, the Chilean operator requested Stardusts radio officer, Dennis Harmer, to relay the message back to him, only to hear the same word, STENDEC, repeated loud and clearly twice in succession. Pages Sign In Register Forgot password? Since the programme transmitted we have received literally hundreds Her sisters, boyfriend and sons knew nothing of her illness until suddenly, during a family gathering in October 2018 at a diner in Reading The Online Photographer lead me to this article. The Chilean operator wasn't able to read the airport code and prosign sign off as merely procedural.Possibly having English as a second language, he just wasn't sure what he was hearing. losing the first two dots) yields ETA LATE - apparently a common The dots and dash formed one letter, V: / . of the station they wish to contact. Voice Without an explanation the case remains a mystery. ATLANTA (AP) The woman flying out of Philadelphias airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. Solve the Mystery of STENDEC Readers' Theories Set #3 Posted February 8, 2001 previous set The word STENDEC means: "Severe Turbulence Encountered, Now Descending, Emergency Crash-Landing.". A popular photographer who has amassed almost 30,000 followers on Instagram has admitted that his portraits are actually generated by artificial intelligence (AI). (ETA LATE) 2023 Madavor Media, LLC. were all supplied with oxygen. It was underpowered, unstable in yaw on the ground (pilots of the Tudor got used to feeding in power at different levels from each engine on takeoff to prevent the beast from departing uncontrollably off the side of the runway), unpleasant to handle in the air, prone to leaks of all kinds, and an ergonomic and maintenance nightmare. This is a personal family mystery that got solved a few years ago, so nothing exciting that would have gotten media attention, haha. same combination of dashes and dots as STENDEC, but shifting the spaces in on initials. Their curse was too much sky. If they wanted to convey distress, they would have sent an SOS., Misinterpretation Theory Grand Duchess Anastasia (with her arm around her brother) is shown with the rest of the Russian royal family in 1913. The STENDEC Puzzle Ever since BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust vanished on a flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago, the ending of its final transmission - STENDEC - has continued to puzzle experts and amateurs alike. The word STENDEC was corrupted into Stendek and became. the ETA. As only one young woman was on board, it was assumed to have been that of Iris Moreen Evans, a 26-year-old from the Rhondda valley. message - that Stardust became entwined in UFO theories. More interestingly, the morse code for STENDEC is only one character off from instead spelling VALP, which is almost the call sign for the closest airport to Valparaiso, 110km northwest of Santiago. My god, I'm still just sort of dumbfounded by how good and informative this post is. Firstly, despite it being easy to rearrange STENDEC quickly in English text, doing the same in morse code is much more complex and highly implausible due to the nature of the language. Back to 'Vanished: The Plane That Disappeared' programme page. The names of the victims were known. When Harmer and his crew sent their final message to Los Cerrillos, they had no idea that they were seconds away from a fatal impact. Los Cerrillos airport Santiago was given was SCTI. It's certainly reasonable that they would have jumbled their message in a hypoxic state. Scherer, J. It is thought that the plane may have caused an avalanche upon impact, resulting in the snowy burial of the aircraft, concealing it from searchers whilst at the same time preserving it for its eventual discovery years later. This would have explained the suddenness of its disappearance, and the fact that large pieces of wreckage had not been spotted during a wide air and land search. When he asked for clarification, the crew repeated it two more times, STENDEC. Ice crystals accumulated on a probe, causing it to give incorrect speed readings and the autopilot system to disengage. /, which is VALP, the call sign for the airport at Valparaiso, some 110 kilometers north of Santiago. When you try to send too quickly that rythm disappears. of mystery, confusion and intrigue ever since. and had the same word repeated by the aircraft twice in succession. . The Army unit also discovered that the wheels on the plane were in an upward position, so the crew had not attempted an emergency landing. Cook had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). [15] During the final portion of Star Dust's flight, heavy clouds would have blocked visibility of the ground. Become a member and get exclusive access to articles, contests and more! On Saturday 2nd August 1947, at around 1:45pm, an Avro Lancastrian Mk.III passenger plane known as Stardust departed from Buenos Aires, Argentina to make a roughly 3 hour 45 minute trip to Santiago, Chile. In Britain, the news led to a hunt for surviving relatives. . [6] Marta Limpert, a German migr, was the only passenger known for certain to have initially boarded Star Mist in London[7] before changing aircraft in Buenos Aires to continue on to Santiago with the other passengers. On August 2, 1947, the Stardust, a Lancastrian III passenger plane with eleven people on board, was almost four hours into its flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile. Charles Willoughby, Cooked Intel, and the Far Right. Possibly because he was finishing The Mystery of STENDEC - YouTube Avro Lancastrian (Public domain image)It was a story borne out all too often in the annals of aviation disasters. Furthermore, whilst it is relatively easy Back to 'Vanished: The Plane That Disappeared' programme pageTranscriptFurther information selection of the ideas. . . Moreover, operators at the time only referred to aircraft by their registration code, which in Star Dusts case was G-AGWH., Acronym Theory The fate of the British South American Airways flight, which disappeared in a snowstorm on August 2 1947 en route from Buenos Aires to Chile, was for decades surrounded by rumours of escaping Nazi spies and stolen gold. Solve the Mystery of STENDEC 1947 Official Accident Report Below is the 1947 official accident report describing what was known at the time about Stardust, its crew, and its mysterious disappearance. / -.-. However, while the aircraft was unpressurized, its crew had been supplied with oxygen. "Systems to the end navigation depends entirely on circle" (although If not V, then the first letters might have been EIN, or IAR, but these combinations lead nowhere. An aircraft finds itself off-course and in .. What was radio operator Dennis Harmer, a highly trained wartime and civilian operator, trying to say? / . Was there a connection? I couldnt find a source for this, but according to theorists online, this was a known phrase for allied fighter pilots in WWII for if their plane was about to crash land. [4], Star Dust's last flight was the final leg of BSAA Flight CS59, which had started in London on an Avro York named Star Mist on 29 July 1947, landing in Buenos Aires on 1 August. makes clear, modern science has answered most of the questions surrounding the 1947 crash of the civilian aircraft Stardust in the Andes east of Santiago, Chile. 1 Pan Am Flight 7 same combination of dashes and dots as STENDEC, but shifting the spaces in The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed that after initially unsuccessful attempts, Argentinian scientists have found close family matches. With the plane supposedly minutes away from the airport, the final word from the Lancastrian became shrouded in mystery when the plane, along with everyone on board, vanished into thin air. Weird December 2010 Views: 31,751. / -.-. Bennett, commander of the Royal Air Force's [Pathfinders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_(RAF) during the Second World War -- it developed an unenviable record for unexplained disappearances of its airliners in flight. Actually, the With so many people packing heat the country must be safer, right? [13] Some BSAA pilots, however, expressed scepticism at this theory; convinced that Cook would not have started his descent without a positive indication that he had crossed the mountains; they have suggested that strong winds may have brought down the craft in some other way. Their curse was too much sky. A popular one is that STENDEC is an anagram of DESCENT and the letters were re-arranged due to Harmer suffering from the effects of hypoxia. On August 2, 1947, the crew of a British South American Airways (BSAA) Lancastrian, an airliner version of the Avro Lancaster WWII bomber, sent a cryptic message. They were finally grounded in 1959, unsurprisingly after yet another ex-BSAA Tudor flew into a Turkish mountain, for reasons that remain unclear, killing all on board. A few days after Christmas in 2015, a woman in Sydney's south-west was contacted by police with shocking news. / . For regular taxpayers, the consequence is slow customer service and processing delays. [11] The head of BSAA, Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, personally directed an unsuccessful five-day search. Its designer, Roy Chadwick, died in one when a prototype crashed during a test flight in 1947. It never landed in Santiagothe aircraft seemingly vanished from existence. A few years later, more debris was found on the mountain, suggesting that the plane had made a head-on impact with the ground due to the close proximity and condition of the wreckage. "[12], A set of events similar to those that doomed Star Dust also caused the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in 1972 (depicted in the film Alive), although there were survivors from that crash because it involved a glancing blow to a mountainside rather than a head-on collision. Other explanations for the appearance A more plausible theory is that the message was misinterpreted due to a spacing error in the Morse code. With the disappearance occurring less than a month after the now infamous Roswell incident, unexplained events such as a vanishing plane were easily connected to the possibility of alien interference.