Star Dust (aeroplane)
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Star Dust was a British South American Airways airliner that disappeared under mysterious circumstances on 2 August 1947.
Star Dust (Registration: G-AGWH), was an Avro Lancastrian airliner; a civilian version of the famous Lancaster bomber of World War II. On flight CS 59 from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile via Mendoza, the airliner vanished without trace, only to be located five decades later.
A comprehensive search of a wide area (including what is now known to have been the crash site) revealed no wreckage. What became of the flight remained a total mystery for over 50 years. There has been a lot of speculation as to the cause and nature of Star Dust's disappearance, including conspiracy theories such as inter-corporate sabotage and even a UFO having taken the aeroplane.
The flight crew of the aircraft were highly-experienced former RAF WW2 veterans with hundreds of flying-hours experience, both in war and peace. The captain was himself also an experienced navigator, and the aircraft was less than two years old. The six passengers included a King's Messenger carrying diplomatic documents that may have related to the UK's strained relations with the Perón government, a German emigré of suspected Nazi sympathies and a rich Palestinian, said to have been carrying a large diamond sewn into the lining of his jacket.
Shortly before - or even as - the airliner crashed, it radioed ahead to report its expected arrival above Santiago in four minutes. Mystery still continues to surround the word "STENDEC", which was the puzzling last word of the final morse code radio transmission received from the airliner at 17:41 standard time.
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[edit] Discovery of wreckage, reconstruction of the crash
In 1998 an Argentinian mountain guide came across the wreckage of a Rolls Royce engine at the foot of the remote Tupungato glacier in the Andes, about 80 km east of Santiago.
In 2000 an Argentinian army expedition found that the wreckage was well-localised, suggesting a 'head-on' rather than 'glancing' impact. A recovered propeller showed that its engine was running at near-cruise speed at the time of the impact and the undercarriage was still retracted, suggesting controlled flight into terrain. Forensic techniques including DNA fingerprinting were applied to the human remains found at the site to determine their identities; remains from nine of the eleven victims have been found, but not individually identified due to lack of identifiable features and DNA degradation.
In 1947, navigation was still largely done by dead reckoning; calculating the aircraft's position using bearing, time and speed, and applying corrections derived from observation of ground features and reported winds. During this final leg of Star Dust's flight, the ground was not visible from above due to heavy cloud.
It is possible that (in the absence of ground fixes) a large navigational error was made due to the aircraft encountering the jet stream - thin, high altitude winds that can sometimes blow at high speed in completely different directions to the winds observed at ground level. At the time - although the existence of the jet stream was known - its actions were still not widely understood, and the Lancastrian was one of the few airliners then capable of flying that high. If the airliner (which had just crossed the Andes at 24000 feet) had encountered the bottom of the jet stream 'zone' (which in this area normally blows from between west and south-west), it is possible that the crew were misled into thinking that they were passing through cloud on the final steep descent into Santiago, whereas they were actually many miles to the east-north-east, over the Tupungato glacier.
It is likely that the airliner flew into a near-vertical snow field near the top of the glacier at an altitude of 15500 feet (4724m), causing an avalanche that buried the wreckage and concealed it from searchers.
The wreckage became incorporated into the body of the glacier, only for fragments to begin to emerge many years later much further down the mountain. From 1998 to 2000, about 10% of the wreckage - including engine and propeller parts and the wheels (one still inflated) - emerged from the glacier, prompting several re-examinations of the accident. Further debris is likely to emerge in the future as the wreckage reaches the melting zone of the glacier.
[edit] "STENDEC"
The word "STENDEC" was reported by the radio operator at Santiago airport to be the last word of a "loud and clear" message, albeit keyed "very fast", from Star Dust. "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 [standard time] STENDEC" was the last of a series of messages transmitted by Star Dust during its flight reporting its position, altitude, and revised estimated time of arrival (ETA).
The word has entered popular culture as an entertaining puzzle. "STENDEC" has been interpreted by many to mean various things, such as "Starting En-Route Descent"; "Severe Turbulence Encountered Now Descending Emergency Crash-Landing" etc. (folk legend having it that these were 'recognised' WWII Morse code abbreviations). These may possibly be later backronyms. The constructions of the acronyms do not follow the pattern of 'real' morse code abbreviations (which are actually shortened words - quite similar to today's 'texting' language). Acronyms (apart from the universally-recognized 'Q'-codes) 'invented' on the spot would be useless, as they would totally mystify South American air traffic controllers, as well as anybody else.
Many hundreds of theories - ranging from the learned to the fantastic - have been put forward over the years, but (in the absence of a sound recording) the true meaning may remain a puzzle forever.
The phrase "STENDEC" has occasionally been misspelled as "STENDEK". Entities using that name include a musician and a 1970s Spanish UFO magazine.
[edit] Casualties
Crew:
Captain: Reginald Cook DSO DFC (29)
First Officer: Hilton Cook (31)
Second Officer: Donald Cheklin (27)
Radio Operator: Dennis Harmer (27)
"Stargirl" (Air Hostess): Iris Evans (26)
Passengers:
Casis Said Atalah (47, Palestinian) - Returning to his wife, Lola, and children in Santiago, Chile, after travelling to Palestine to visit his dying mother. A diamond is stitched into the lining of his suit.
Jack Gooderham (42, British) - Self-made businessman, travelling with Harald Pagh.
Harald Pagh (41, Swiss national) - Playboy businessman. Polyglot and friend of Jack Gooderham. Travelling to make business contacts and renew friendships.
Martha Limpert (67, German) - An émigré returning to her home in Temuco, Chile, with her dead husband's ashes, after becoming stranded in Germany for the duration of the war.
Paul Simpson (43, British) - Civil servant and polyglot, a 'King's Messenger' carrying diplomatic documents in a large canvas sack intended for the British embassy in Santiago. Joined the Foreign Office direct from Thomas Cook, the travel company.
Peter Young (41, British) - South American agent for the British tyre manufacturer Dunlop. Developed a taste for travel while tutoring Prince Michael of Romania in Bucharest.
(Reginald Cook's widow, Cicely, later committed suicide for reasons believed to be related to the crash).
