This would mean the message he was trying to send Los Cerrillos was instead: When you look at the beginning of the words, you can notice some similarities, which shows how easy it can sometimes be to mistranslate morse code. On board the British South American Airways flight were five crew members and six passengers, including the Captain, Commander Reginald J. Cook, an experienced and former RAF pilot during World War II. This theory is an easy one to break apart. A Spanish magazine about UFOs appropriated STENDEK as its title, and at least one U.S. comic book illustrated the disappearance of the Stardust, pondering the meaning of STENDEC for its fascinated readers. Operating as Flight CS-59, aka Star Dust, the four-engine aircraft was en route from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, with 11 people on board. Morse allows a maximum of four dots and dashes in any letter, narrowing the possibility for mistakes. / -.-. More debris is expected to emerge in future, not only as a result of normal glacial motion, but also as the glacier melts. Actually, the With so many people packing heat the country must be safer, right? Seems very unlikely. 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. 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. 1947 an British South American Airways aircraft named Star Dust disappeared, it's last message was simply "STENDEC". 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. As for the Avro Tudor, its safety record was deplorable even at the time. I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. Its not even common practice for a plane to transmit its name at the end of a routine message, so this theory also unfortunately falls flat. STENDEC. It would be the last anyone ever heard from Star Dust. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. The message was repeated-STENDEC, then transmitted a third time. Mistakenly believing they had already cleared the mountain tops, they started their descent when they were in fact still behind cloud-covered peaks. / / . 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. 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. Mysteries Of Flight: The Curious Case Of Pan Am Flight 914, Fond Farewell to a Titan: The Antonov An-225, Plane & Pilot Survey: Pilots and Politics, Accident Brief: Piper PA28R Crash In Georgia. Some politicians have irresponsibly suggested that every new IRS employee will be a gun-toting enforcement agent. Conspiracy Theory Watch: Don't Drink the Kool Aid. destroyer escort during the 70's.We were morse code trained. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. 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. Ball lightning doesn't happen very often, so it hasn't been recorded under natural conditions. STENDECANAGRAMS Then nothing. Possibly because he was finishing 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. 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. normal for the Radio Operator to start the message by transmitting the name The Theory Charles Willoughby, Cooked Intel, and the Far Right. Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled. For those who aren't familiar, a flight carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and some of their family members crashed into the Andes in 1972. [6], A recovered propeller showed that the engine had been running at near-cruising speed at the time of the impact. DNA samples from relatives of the victims subsequently identified four passengers and crew. In Mendoza, one startling picture published in the city's newspapers aroused particular curiosity. hypoxia (lack of oxygen) as the Lancastrian was unpressurised and But the budgetary toll of persistent underfunding is unmistakable. 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. Several body parts were found, mostly intact due to being frozen in ice, and were later confirmed through DNA testing as passengers of Star Dust. Then nothing. Then four years ago, several Argentinians climbing Mount Tupungato stumbled across part of a Rolls Royce engine, fragments of fuselage and strips of bleached clothing. You can find yourself trying to send quickly between the troughs ,drops and bumps, making your send hard to decipher. losing the first two dots) yields ETA LATE - apparently a common ATLANTA (AP) The woman flying out of Philadelphias airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. This made for interesting reading and a welcome diversion from the usual flood of depressing news. INITIALS Sometimes These Enigmas Never Decipher. In morse code, there are various short-hand acronyms and abbreviations which help convey much longer messages quickly. . 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. up sign. 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. There's still no explanation for the loss of Star Ariel, but so many things went wrong with Tudors on such a regular basis that its disappearance is hardly to be wondered at. STENDEC." That was the last communication sent in Morse code on August 2, 1947, by an Avro 691 Lancastrian aircraft flying for British South American Airways from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile. And similarly why would an operator say ETA LATE when he had only The operator understood that Star Dust intended to land in four minutes, but the final word, STENDEC, confused him. Almost certainly Star Tiger ran out of fuel before reaching Bermuda, a consequence of stronger-than-predicted upper-level winds. An interesting new solution to the STENDEC mystery has been proposed, as advised by listener Anders. of Stendec. . Yet one mystery remains:. Several people have pointed out that Mysteries - - . [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. clear that STENDEC is not what the message was meant to say. [11] The head of BSAA, Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, personally directed an unsuccessful five-day search. Without an explanation the case remains a mystery. What did the crew of this flight mean when they sent a cryptic message before crashing? Again, this is the same as ST, only with different spacing.- (V) Its designer, Roy Chadwick, died in one when a prototype crashed during a test flight in 1947. Weird December 2010 Views: 31,751. But what was Jon Stewart asks when we will have enough guns -- watch to the end to watch him absolutely stick the landing. The word 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. use SOS, the internationally accepted distress signal? Once again, no distress signal was received. Sign up for our newsletter, full of tips, reviews and more! out, but seems unlikely. Actually, the With so many people packing heat the country must be safer, right? Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled. I was a radio operator aboard an R.A.N. Furthermore, whilst it is relatively easy case G-AGWH) rather than the romantic names airlines gave them. The mystery became an obsession of the innumerable "Bermuda Triangle" crackpots, who attribute almost all unexplained losses of ships and aircraft within a 500,000 square-mile area to paranormal activity. . Perhaps with more time, an additional transmission would have been sent explaining STENDEC, but, as things stand, while Some Try Explaining, Nobody Deciphers Enigmatic Code. word is meaningless in almost every language, and trying to use In Britain, the news led to a hunt for surviving relatives. 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. 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. They may be similar, but it is still hard to imagine an experienced "Santiago tower even navigator doesnt exactly know" STENDEC. The wireless operator did not recognize the last word, so he requested clarification. Christie could have made something of this, but the passengers were quite unwilling and unwitting victims. The unit had to finish quickly. It was delivered to BSAA on 12 January 1946, was registered on 16 January as G-AGWH and given the individual aircraft name "Star Dust". aircraft were usually referred to by their registration (in Stardusts 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. End Credits. STENDEC/STAR DUST Theory The actual But my maternal great . They hadn't passed Curico. STENDEC - Solved?! . The following is a similar list of strange mysteries that were solved later with the help of science, history, research, archaeology, coincidences, etc. The actual Morse code which the Chilean Operator believed she received was: S T E N D E C [8], Star Dust left Buenos Aires at 1:46 pm on 2 August. / - / . The experienced crew of the "Stardust" apparently realized the plane was off course in a northerly direction (it was found eighty kilometers off its flight path), or they purposely departed from the charted route to avoid bad weather. that a radio operator would resort to convoluted messages based This made for interesting reading and a welcome diversion from the usual flood of depressing news. Scherer, J. were all supplied with oxygen. STENDEC" That wasthe last message received from Star Dust, sent by Radio Officer Dennis Harmer at 17:41 on 2nd August 1947. . The unit had to finish quickly. 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.". "Santiago tower message now descending entering cloud" (or "Santiago Los Cerrillos airport Santiago was given was SCTI. 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. Additionally, the condition of the wheels proved that the undercarriage was still retracted, suggesting controlled flight into terrain rather than an attempted emergency landing. Why would the operator say end? In 1947 the official report into Stardusts disappearance had this the plane was flying at 24000 feet, which would have led the radio It even inspired a new name for a UFO magazineSTENDEK. What was experienced radio operator Dennis Harmer trying to say? So apparently the mystery hasn't been solved, because I don't see anything in the article suggesting anyone understands what Stendec meant. The last two possible mistranslations both involve an input mistake of some sort, but there is another phrase which uses the exact same morse code sequence as STENDEC but with different spacing. As mentioned previously, the standard morse code for a distress signal is SOS, which is much easier and quicker to communicate than STENDEC. By 2002, the bodies of five of the eight British victims had been identified through DNA testing. [10], In 1998, two Argentine mountaineers climbing Mount Tupungatoabout 60mi (100km) west-southwest of Mendoza, and about 50mi (80km) east of Santiagofound the wreckage of a Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine, along with twisted pieces of metal and shreds of clothing, in the Tupungato Glacier at an elevation of 15,000ft (4,600m). It was concluded that, being his first Trans-Andean flight in command, and in view of the weather conditions, Cook should not have crossed via the direct route, and despite the absence of a wreckage, the plane likely perished somewhere along the snowy peaks of the Andes Mountains. a new clue the truth is we will never know for sure what that final The crash was a result of controlled descent into terrain. simple message SCTI AR (or in layman's terms "Santiago, over"). An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. 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. The Stardust incident involved British South American Airways G-AGWH. And why not Christie could have made something of this, but the passengers were quite unwilling and unwitting victims.
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