Dear NOVA, I am a radio amateur who actively uses the Morse Code. Christie could have made something of this, but the passengers were quite unwilling and unwitting victims. It also seems clear that the message was not anticipating a crash, It is understood that Iris Evans's sister was found and gave a blood sample after a BBC Horizon programme about the crash. Background The word STENDEC was corrupted into Stendek and became. Therefore a standard signoff would be sent as the reception of the signal was loud and clear but that it was given They had nothing to do with the crash, other than being present. For over fifty years the disappearance ranked as one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the aviation world, and a lively and inventive mythology grew up around the incident. It would be like ending a story with once upon a time., Conclusion Morse code experts we have consulted believe that it is highly unlikely All further calls were The names of the victims were known. Morse transmissions prior to picking up voice communication. Five of the eight British victims have been identified. / -.-. 1 Dec. 2010, Volume 24, Number 12: 1-5. flew at this time reports that it was common to inform the airport on initials. After the third time, communications ceased, and the aircraft disappeared, never reaching its final destination. Without an explanation the case remains a mystery. When flying at high altitudes, oxygen molecules are harder to inhale, and if a plane is not pressurized, it can lead to hypoxia, a condition which can impair or even completely destroy your ability to function. of the station they wish to contact. They had been . In 1950, one of these, Star Girl, had no fewer than 83 passengers and crew crammed into it on a charter flight from Dublin to Llandow, a low-cost airport near Cardiff in Wales. The Horizon staff concluded that, with the possible exception of some misunderstanding based on Morse code, none of these proposed solutions was plausible. of Stardusts radio operator. 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". Their discovery revived interest in solving the mystery of what had happened to Flight CS59 and its 11 passengers and crew. Morse code which the Chilean Operator believed she received was: S T E N D E C. _ . Iris Evans, who had previously served in the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens") as a chief petty officer, was the flight attendant. in other words 'EC' without the space. / - (Descent) 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 dots and dash formed one letter, V: / . made with the control tower at Santiago. /- (ST) In the late 1990s, pieces of wreckage from the missing aircraft began to emerge from the glacial ice. It has taken two years to find relatives and carry out the necessary DNA tests. Technology Inc. recognized signoff or 'end of message' signal was 'AR' (with no space The actual Morse code which the Chilean Operator believed she received was: S T E N D E C To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). full message sent at 17.41 hrs was as follows: It was determined the jet went down because of pilot error after the autopilot disengaged. It never landed in Santiagothe aircraft seemingly vanished from existence. It's certainly reasonable that they would have jumbled their message in a hypoxic state. An expedition, supported by local Argentinian soldiers, was organised to search the mountain. Even if an equipment malfunction had occurred, what are the odds that only one word would be jumbled in the message and that it would be done so three times in exactly the same order? that final message from the ill-fated Lancastrian. The word simply has no meaning in any language, not even in Morse code. [10] It has also been suggested that World War II pilots used this seemingly obscure abbreviation when an aircraft was in hazardous weather and was likely to crash, meaning "Severe Turbulence Encountered, Now Descending Emergency Crash-landing". This button leads to the main index of LGF Pages, our user-submitted articles. (0), By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. Relatives of the crew and passengers aboard a British plane which plunged into an Argentinian glacier 55 years ago have been told this week their DNA samples match human remains recovered from a crash site 15,000ft up in the Andes. 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. For one, call signs for all BSAA flights in the 1940s began with star. Its unlikely that this would have been a point of confusion for Harmer, especially given that STENDEC wasnt a word. 5 STENDEC Another mystery involving a plane played out on August 2, 1947. STENDEC and STAR DUST are coded similarly in both English and Morse code, causing some to theorize that Harmer sent one when he actually meant the other. [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". . STENDEC - The World's Most Mysterious Morse Code | When a plane goes missing over the Andes Mountains in 1947, it's unusual last message leaves the world with a 70 year old mystery still waiting to be solved. STENDEC is the same Morse as SCTI AR if you don't consider any spacing between characters. [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. The disappearance of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos Two men (unrelated, who didn't know each other) disappeared from Naples, Florida three months apart under the exact same circumstances. course. "[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. In fact, the omission of the dot in the original transmission was not an error. Morse '._._.' That part of the puzzle wouldnt be solved until half a century later. - . by John . The Theory - /. 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. When he asked for clarification, the crew repeated it two more times, STENDEC. 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. 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. They may be similar, but it is still hard to imagine an experienced I remember him in his RAF uniform during the war. the operator use a calling up sign in the middle of his message? Back to 'Vanished: The Plane That Disappeared' programme pageTranscriptFurther information (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.). The flight was conducted in zero-visibility conditions, so its unlikely the crew had any idea their plane was about to impact a mountainside. of messages offering explanations of STENDEC. [8], Star Dust left Buenos Aires at 1:46 pm on 2 August. 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. On BSAA's Transatlantic services, moreover, it was operating at the ragged edge of its range when flying westbound. 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. My god, I'm still just sort of dumbfounded by how good and informative this post is. The first letter has to be V, and the rest just fall into place-ALP-a perfect match in Morse. State Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-OK) has penned several bills loosening gun restrictions, including the nation's first anti-red flag MUNICH (AP) The United States has determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday, insisting that justice must be served to the perpetrators. STENDEC was corrupted into Stendek and became the name of a Spanish by aliens. / -.. / . method of signalling a late arrival amongst RAF radio operators.. / - / .- / .-.. / .- / - / . Both men were last spotted being arrested by deputy Steve Calkins for driving without a license. 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. Its meaning, however, is astonishingly simple. STENDEC Solved (Mystery message from 1947 Andes plane crash) By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. 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. The Avro Lancastrian was a civilian version of the wartime Lancaster heavy bomber. Dennis Harmer at 17:41 on 2nd August 1947. 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. / -.. / . 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. The site had been difficult to reach. There are theories that STENDEC was an abbreviation or acronym of a much larger phrase, and when you break it down you can imagine a whole host of sentences could be constructed using these letters. STENDECANAGRAMS The final apparently unintelligible word "STENDEC" has been a source The crew probably did not panic, but they were concerned about the lack of visibility and landmarks. People all over the world had reported hundreds of flying saucer sightings during the last two weeks of June 1947. However, while the aircraft was unpressurized, its crew had been supplied with oxygen. 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. The Lancastrian was an unpressurized aircraft, meaning that the crew and passengers could have been subject to hypoxia had their oxygen system failed, and so some suggest that this may have led to Harmer sending parts of his final message in a confused state. / - / . (STENDEC) If one divides the same dots and dashes in STENDEC differently, the message reads: / . CONCLUSION This made for interesting reading and a welcome diversion from the usual flood of depressing news. The fate of the aircraft and its occupants remained unknown for over fifty years, giving rise to various conspiracy theories about its disappearance. It has to be this one in my opinion. [6], A recovered propeller showed that the engine had been running at near-cruising speed at the time of the impact. A / -.. / . Thanks SK. According to experts, if an additional space had been added between the first two letters, STENDEC would translate to: ATTENTION END END OF MESSAGE. It seems a bit redundant to say END and then END OF MESSAGE, however. But would they repeat AR too, not just the airport code, for clarity? The message was repeated-STENDEC, then transmitted a third time. 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. Several body parts were also discovered, most of them intact due to being preserved in ice, and were later confirmed through DNA to be the passengers and crew of Stardust. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. As mentioned in a previous theory, morse code can be easily misinterpreted if incorrectly spaced or misheard by the receiver. The Mystery solved. which is identical - although with different spacings - to EC. 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. Whilst its true that the Lancastrian was unpressurised, the crew the hastily sent morse message gives us : We will never Both in London and in Buenos Aires, the pilot, Reginald Cook, had been briefed not to take this option if bad weather prevailed, but despite this advice, Cook had chosen to fly Stardust along this central route. DNA samples from relatives of the victims subsequently identified four passengers and crew. the disappearance of the plane - coupled with its final strange By 2002, the bodies of five of the eight British victims had been identified through DNA testing. It even inspired a new name for a UFO magazineSTENDEK. of the above, please follow the link to Martin Colwell's website here - code. STENDEC. It would be the last anyone ever heard from Star Dust. The trekkers had abandoned their pack mules lower down, and ascended with what they could carry. up sign. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable even has an entry for STENDEC. Dozens of books and articles have examined the evidence, turned it over, twisted it, rearranged the letters, and drawn a blank. A popular photographer who has amassed almost 30,000 followers on Instagram has admitted that his portraits are actually generated by artificial intelligence (AI). - / . The weather on the day consisted of snowstorms in the Andes Mountains with moderate to intense turbulence, whilst visual contact with the ground would have been extremely low and unfit for flying. The radio operator meant to say Stardust. "STENDEC Solved." The North Texas Skeptic. 1 "The Bloop" is an underwater mystery that took nearly 10 years to solve. 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. As it turns out, STENDEC is an anagram of the word "descent." One popular theory is that the crew, flying at 24,000 feet in an unpressurized aircraft, suffered from hypoxia. Without rearranging any of the inputs, and just separating the spacing differently, you can come up with the phrase SCTI AR. Additionally, the condition of the wheels proved that the undercarriage was still retracted, suggesting controlled flight into terrain rather than an attempted emergency landing. It was hard work at this elevation, and the Army had supplies for only thirty-six hours. problem, here is a website which translates English into Morse code. Even parts of the plane had been frozen in time, with one of its wheels still fully inflated after spending half a century lost on the glacier. Before this message a series of entirely routine messages had been 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. The Chilean radio operator at Santiago states that the The message was repeated-STENDEC, then transmitted a third time. know for certain, but I believe this is by far the most likely meaning of STENDEC. The wireless operator did not recognize the last word, so he requested clarification. However, the mystery of the final radio message remains. It would have been I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. By Plane and Pilot Updated December 12, 2019 Save Article. The Lancastrian's vanishing act happened at a time of considerable political turmoil in South America. Full video here breaking down the story -, A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Plane and Pilot builds on more than 50 years of serving pilots and owners of aircraft with the goal of empowering our readers to improve their knowledge and enthusiasm for aviation. End Credits. An aircraft finds itself off-course and in .. Adding to the mystery, two Avro 691 Lancastrian aircraft had crashed during the previous seventeen months. As mentioned previously, the standard morse code for a distress signal is SOS, which is much easier and quicker to communicate than STENDEC. As one of the pilots was dying he kept repeating, "We passed Curico," still bewildered as to how they had ended up in the peaks. Adding to the mystery, two Avro 691 Lancastrian aircraft had crashed during the previous seventeen months. to say on the subject:The 17.41 signal was received by Santiago only 4 minutes before attention, and another signing off. . ATLANTA (AP) The woman flying out of Philadelphias airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. message from Star Dust - "E.T.A. The letter was not C. Nor were the first two letters of this strange message ST: / . message from Star Dust -. STENDEC and Stardust have Part of the problem was that BSAA was operating types of aircraft that were at the extreme limits of their capabilities. STENDEC. The wireless operator did not recognize the last word, so he requested clarification. destroyer escort during the 70's.We were morse code trained. of mystery, confusion and intrigue ever since. And even less likely that the same morse dyslexia would be repeated Mrs Coalwood said: "He was my older cousin, who I idolised hopelessly. [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). The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites, Back to 'Vanished: The Plane That Disappeared' programme pageTranscriptFurther information, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. All these variations seem implausible to a greater or lesser extent. The central route via Mendoza was considered to be the quickest of the three, yet potentially the most dangerous depending on weather conditions. What was radio operator Dennis Harmer, a highly trained wartime and civilian operator, trying to say? simple message SCTI AR (or in layman's terms "Santiago, over"). [23], "Stendec" redirects here. Miracle in the Andes is an excellent book by the way.