But my maternal great . As for the Avro Tudor, its safety record was deplorable even at the time. Four letter ICAO codes for airports had
That is the official ruling of an Oklahoma court. much harder in Morse code.-.. / . The crew of Stardust, including the radio operator Harmer, had all served in the RAF previously during WWII, so if this phrase is true, then it is possible that they were all familiar with the term and used it in a time of crisis. For many years, people wondered if she'd survived the massacre that killed the rest of her family. Morse code experts we have consulted believe that it is highly unlikely 1947 an British South American Airways aircraft named Star Dust disappeared, it's last message was simply "STENDEC". /, which is VALP, the call sign for the airport at Valparaiso, some 110 kilometers north of Santiago. All Rights Reserved / -.-. No distress transmission was received; the last broadcast from the aircraft was a routine position check, about two hours before it should have reached its destination. Imagine your last communication with someone being the equivalent of covfefe and it turning into a mystery that people puzzle over for decades, I still have no clue what covfefe means and suspect people will puzzle over it for decades, British South American Airways (BSAA), the operator of the doomed aircraft, was a particularly unfortunate air carrier. which is identical - although with different spacings - to EC. However, the mystery of the final radio message remains. Due to the poor visibility caused by the storm, its possible that the crew were unaware that their plane was on course to collide with the mountainside, and unknowingly plummeted the aircraft into the summit before eventually succumbing to the elements. Charles Willoughby, Cooked Intel, and the Far Right. I personally believe that the word was a misinterpretation of the code, but theories span far and wide on what the now notorious phrase stood for. As mentioned previously, the standard morse code for a distress signal is SOS, which is much easier and quicker to communicate than STENDEC. On this ill-fated day, a British South American Airways airliner called Star Dust carrying six passengers and five crew members crashed during its journey from Buenos Aires to Santiago. Ball lightning is a potentially dangerous atmospheric electrical phenomenon. problem, here is a website which translates English into Morse code. It also seems clear that the message was not anticipating a crash, In the absence of any hard evidence, numerous theories aroseincluding rumours of sabotage (compounded by the later disappearance of two other aircraft also belonging to BSAA);[13] speculation that Star Dust might have been blown up to destroy diplomatic documents being carried by the King's Messenger;[13] or even the suggestion that Star Dust had been taken or destroyed by a UFO (an idea fuelled by unresolved questions about the flight's final Morse code message). In January 2000, a 100-man search party from the Argentine Army clambered 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) up Tupungato Mountain, a 6,552-meter (21,490-foot) volcano, where it located parts of the plane, as well as human bones, at the base of a glacier. Using the
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. by aliens. Adding to the mystery, two Avro 691 Lancastrian aircraft had crashed during the previous seventeen months. Terms of Use/Privacy Policy. The Theory radio operator and/or receiver in Santiago, and playfulness on behalf [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. A faulty oxygen system cant be ruled 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. Sign in to continue reading. "STENDEC" in Morse code is: / - / . Fiddling with Morse code seems to offer the best chance of getting amusing messages based on using STENDEC as a series of initials: An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. Sign up for our newsletter, full of tips, reviews and more! / - (Descent) [22] Alternatively, the Morse spelling for "STENDEC" is one character off from instead spelling VALP, the call sign for the airport at Valparaiso, 110 kilometers north of Santiago. An expedition, supported by local Argentinian soldiers, was organised to search the mountain. Plane and Pilot expands upon the vast base of knowledge and experience from aviations most reputable influencers to inspire, educate, entertain and inform. The Lancastrian aircraft, with eleven people on board, never did arrive at Santiago Airport and its location remained unsolved for over fifty years. [23], "Stendec" redirects here. Something like "We're completely screwed.". close to an understanding of the message. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). After getting the boot from BSAA, he launched his own fly-by-night airline, Airflight Ltd., using two Tudors he'd picked up cheaply and one of which he flew himself. three times.STENDEC/Stardust Already a member? Yet one mystery remains:. A FINAL WORDHorizon regrets that - due to the sheer volume of correspondence Imaginative souls speculated that aliens had snatched the large Lancastrian along with its passengers and crew. losing the first two dots) yields ETA LATE - apparently a common Become a member and get exclusive access to articles, contests and more! The Stardust incident involved British South American Airways G-AGWH. - - . - . But what was Jon Stewart asks when we will have enough guns -- watch to the end to watch him absolutely stick the landing. [8], Star Dust left Buenos Aires at 1:46 pm on 2 August. They had been . But would they repeat AR too, not just the airport code, for clarity? The central route via Mendoza was considered to be the quickest of the three, yet potentially the most dangerous depending on weather conditions. . It is now believed that the crew became confused as to their exact location while flying at high altitudes through the (then poorly understood) jet stream. / -. When you try to send too quickly that rythm disappears. This gives us the very
You can post your own LGF Pages simply by registering a free account with us. 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. STENDEC/STAR DUST Theory / -.-. Adding to the mystery, two Avro 691 Lancastrian aircraft had crashed during the previous seventeen months. message from Star Dust - "E.T.A. / -. STENDEC Solved (Mystery message from 1947 Andes plane crash) - LGF Pages 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. I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. based in Morse code, and have come from people highly familiar with Many people wrote pointing out that STENDEC is an anagram of descent. 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. Background Their discovery revived. 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. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Harris Joel is a founding member and the resident keyboard wizard for Umphreys McGee AND a long-time Phish fan! The Chilean operator remarks that Harmer sends the final transmission very quickly.A rule of morse operation is that you don't send faster than the receiving operator can decipher.It appears Harmer did send too quickly, even while repeating. As might be inferred from that lineage, it was uncomfortable, noisy, and cramped. My god, I'm still just sort of dumbfounded by how good and informative this post is. Discussion / / -.-. Just before the plane disappeared, it Grand Duchess Anastasia (with her arm around her brother) is shown with the rest of the Russian royal family in 1913. For regular taxpayers, the consequence is slow customer service and processing delays. Something like "We're completely screwed.". Five months after the episode described by OP, one of BSAA's Avro Tudor IV aircraft, Star Tiger, with 31 persons on board, vanished on a flight from Lisbon to Bermuda with an intermediate fuel stop in the Azores. Then nothing. An aircraft finds itself off-course and in .. STENDEC Solved by John L. Scherer. One of the two main landing wheels was still fully inflated after a half century! Banksters, Peasants, and Kim Jong Un's Grandpa: A Parable for Our Times. Furthermore, the operator use a calling up sign in the middle of his message? The problem? 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. It's reported as looking luminous and spherical, and can vary in diameter - from pea-sized to several metres long. Martin Colwell's theory on the mystery "STENDEC"
I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. Almost a year after the loss of Star Tiger, her sister aircraft, Star Ariel, also vanished in good weather while on a flight from Bermuda to Jamaica. Whilst its possible that STENDEC could mean any one of these phrases, theres nothing definitive I can find which suggests that this phrase ever meant anything previously, making it more unlikely that this word was used intentionally at all. simple message SCTI AR (or in layman's terms "Santiago, over"). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go. the last message received from Star Dust, sent by Radio Officer
The Morse for AR is.- /.-. "Stardust tank empty no diesel expected crash" Weird December 2010 Views: 31,751. Among the grisly remains scattered over a radius of more than a mile on the glacier were three human torsos, a foot in an ankle boot and a hand with fingers outstretched. Sometimes human error leads to some of the most interesting mysteries but generally when you hear hooves you want to think horses before you think zebras. The site had been difficult to reach. At 5:41 p.m., a Chilean Morse code radio operator for the Los Cerrillos Airport received a message. British Overseas Airways G-AGLX (the registration number) went down on March 23, 1946, and British Overseas Airways G-AGMF crashed on August 20. 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. 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. 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. Their curse was too much sky. Dear NOVA, I am a radio amateur who actively uses the Morse Code. reception of the signal was loud and clear but that it was given 10 'Unsolved' Mysteries That Have Been Solved. The first letter has to be V, and the rest just fall into place-ALP-a perfect match in Morse. "Why do so many earthquakes occur at a depth of 10km?" [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". _. that final message from the ill-fated Lancastrian. Something about how the pilots were originally British Airways pilots and that Stendec actually meant something in British Airways terminology. - we are unable to respond to further suggestions about the meaning [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). Ball lightning doesn't happen very often, so it hasn't been recorded under natural conditions. Morse transmissions prior to picking up voice communication. full message sent at 17.41 hrs was as follows: 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.". After this, British civil aviation authorities withdrew the Tudor's certification to carry passengers, and the few remaining examples concluded their operational service as cargo and tanker aircraft. Understanding STENDEC has been the quest for many experienced and avid radio operators, with online forums dedicated to deciphering what Dennis Harmer was trying to say. See link for the answer to this 63 year old question. The Lancastrian's vanishing act happened at a time of considerable political turmoil in South America. What was radio operator Dennis Harmer, a highly trained wartime and civilian operator, trying to say? [10] However, Star Dust never arrived, no more radio transmissions were received by the airport, and intensive efforts by both Chilean and Argentine search teams, as well as by other BSAA pilots, failed to uncover any trace of the aircraft or of the people on board. These included suggestions that the radio operator, possibly suffering from hypoxia, had scrambled the word "DESCENT" (of which "STENDEC" is an anagram); that "STENDEC" may have been the initials of some obscure phrase or that the airport radio operator had misheard the Morse code transmission despite it reportedly having been repeated multiple times. Solve the Mystery of STENDEC STENDEC Theories On August 2, 1947, Stardust 's radio operator sent a final message in Morse code to the Chilean radio operator then on duty in Santiago. 56K views 8 months ago #Disasters #History For over 50 years the fate of Flight CS-59 remained a mystery. Was there a connection? Technology Inc. recognized signoff or 'end of message' signal was 'AR' (with no space
Furthermore, why would they put ATTENTION at the end of the transmission instead of the beginning? A mix of misinterpretation and a lack of recent knowledge led to the operator instead hearing the term STENDEC, which, combined with the disappearance of the plane, led to one of South Americas greatest aviation mysteries. Similarly, another Morse expert has pointed out that to attract Seems very unlikely. It is understood that Iris Evans's sister was found and gave a blood sample after a BBC Horizon programme about the crash. Iris Evans, who had previously served in the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens") as a chief petty officer, was the flight attendant.