stendec mystery solved

. 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. /, which is VALP, the call sign for the airport at Valparaiso, some 110 kilometers north of Santiago. [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. Could there be more to the story of Star Dusts crash? The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed that after initially unsuccessful attempts, Argentinian scientists have found close family matches. Christie could have made something of this, but the passengers were quite unwilling and unwitting victims. 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. STENDEC and Stardust have / - / . The problem? The Stardust could not be raised and no wreckage could be found. tower aircraft now descending entering cloud") 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.". Discussion [18], Star Dust is likely to have flown into a nearly vertical snowfield near the top of the glacier, causing an avalanche that buried the wreckage within seconds and concealed it from searchers. 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. 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. Christie could have made something of this, but the passengers were quite unwilling and unwitting victims. Possibly because he was finishing 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. Both men were last spotted being arrested by deputy Steve Calkins for driving without a license. Furthermore, why would they put ATTENTION at the end of the transmission instead of the beginning? up sign. No trace of the missing Lancastrian aircraft, named Star Dust, could be found. This is fascinating. . 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. So apparently the mystery hasn't been solved, because I don't see anything in the article suggesting anyone understands what Stendec meant. [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. The unit had to finish quickly. STENDEC/STAR DUST Theory of Stardusts radio operator. 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. Hence we have: that a radio operator would resort to convoluted messages based 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. Ball lightning. / - /. (0), By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. One was a British diplomatic courier, a King's Messenger. A FINAL WORDHorizon regrets that - due to the sheer volume of correspondence /- (ST) Explanations based in Morse code The trekkers had abandoned their pack mules lower down, and ascended with what they could carry. / -.. / . course. A solution to the word "STENDEC" has not been found. very close to the airport, and one pilot and radio operator who 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. Whilst a reasonable theory on the surface, its unfortunately also quite reasonable to discredit. Whilst it's certainly a bizarre coincidence, especially given the circumstances, the theory goes that Harmer was trying to inform the control tower that the plane was going down. The Theory [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. Something about how the pilots were originally British Airways pilots and that Stendec actually meant something in British Airways terminology. The Morse for AR is.- /.-. otherwise it would not have been repeated three times. This is a personal family mystery that got solved a few years ago, so nothing exciting that would have gotten media attention, haha. 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. The message was repeated-STENDEC, then transmitted a third time. 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. Americas owner-flown aircraft enthusiasts and active-pilot resource, delivered to your inbox! 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. The names of the victims were known. If they wanted to convey distress, they would have sent an SOS., Misinterpretation Theory 1 "The Bloop" is an underwater mystery that took nearly 10 years to solve. 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. 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. Between 1998 and 2000, about ten per cent of the total expected wreckage emerged from the glacier, prompting several re-examinations of the accident. [10], The staff of the BBC television series Horizonwhich presented an episode in 2000 on the Star Dust disappearancereceived hundreds of messages from viewers proposing explanations of "STENDEC". The theory A WGBH-Boston NOVA: Vanished (2001) program about the crash commented: Some of the six passengers on board seemed to have stepped straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. They included a Palestinian businessman with a sizable diamond sewn into the lining of his jacket; a German migr, Marta Limpert, returning to Chile with the ashes of her dead husband; and a British courier carrying diplomatic correspondence. by John . 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. 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. Back to 'Vanished: The Plane That Disappeared' programme page. Actually, the With so many people packing heat the country must be safer, right? The Lancastrian aircraft, with eleven people on board, never did arrive at Santiago Airport and its location remained unsolved for over fifty years. Mystery solved. All these variations seem implausible to a greater or lesser extent. However, the mystery of the final radio message remains. 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. In Morse code, determining accurate spacing between characters is vital to properly interpret the message; "STENDEC" uses exactly the same dot/dash sequence as "SCTI AR" (the four-letter code for Los Cerrillos Airport in Santiago, "over"). The mystery of the word STENDEC took its place among the great unsolved cases so beloved in the lore of urban legendry. out, but seems unlikely. know for certain, but I believe this is by far the most likely meaning of Neither men were taken to the jail. What was radio operator Dennis Harmer, a highly trained wartime and civilian operator, trying to say? 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. flew at this time reports that it was common to inform the airport 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. 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. They had been . [8], Star Dust left Buenos Aires at 1:46 pm on 2 August. The first letter has to be V, and the rest just fall into place-ALP-a perfect match in Morse. Whilst many accepted that the fate of Stardust and its crew had been settled, the absence of a wreckage, along with the mysterious circumstances surrounding its final message, lead to widespread speculation, with theories spanning from sabotage to extraterrestrial in nature. Several people have pointed out that Charles Willoughby, Cooked Intel, and the Far Right. STENDEC was corrupted into Stendek and became the name of a Spanish 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. /, which is VALP, the call sign for the airport at Valparaiso, some 110 kilometers north of Santiago. This theory is an easy one to break apart. 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. Very good writeup! Full video here breaking down the story -, A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Perhaps the most plausible explanations we have heard are firmly to say on the subject:The 17.41 signal was received by Santiago only 4 minutes before The word STENDEC was corrupted into Stendek and became. Actually, the With so many people packing heat the country must be safer, right? - /. It was hard work at this elevation, and the Army had supplies for only thirty-six hours. It would have been Four letter ICAO codes for airports had was that a small rearrangement of the dots and dashes (for example This made for interesting reading and a welcome diversion from the usual flood of depressing news. It would be like ending a story with once upon a time., Conclusion That would leave just "END", sandwiched between a signal attracting The crew probably did not panic, but they were concerned about the lack of visibility and landmarks. 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. 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. Morse transmissions prior to picking up voice communication. 'ETA [estimated time of arrival] Santiago 17.45 hrs STENDEC' The disappearance and the odd message have remained a mystery for over sixty years. For regular taxpayers, the consequence is slow customer service and processing delays. . Seems very unlikely. Investigators concluded that the crew, flying in a snowstorm against a powerful jet stream, had become confused about their location and believed they were closer to Santiago than they actually were. the disappearance of the plane - coupled with its final strange The unit had to finish quickly. STENDEC is the same Morse as SCTI AR if you don't consider any spacing between characters. 2023 Madavor Media, LLC. . The misunderstanding of their actual location reminds me of Uruguayan Flight 571, the subject of the book and movie Alive! 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. By 2002, the bodies of five of the eight British victims had been identified through DNA testing. radio operator and/or receiver in Santiago, and playfulness on behalf / -.. / . It even inspired a new name for a UFO magazineSTENDEK. 'Star Dust' did, however, broadcast a last, cryptic, Morse message; "STENDEC", which was received by Santiago Airport at 17:41 hrs - just four minutes before it's planned landing time. - / . Just before the plane disappeared, it Star Dust crashed into Mount Tupungato, killing all aboard and burying itself in snow and ice.[1][2]. All further calls were 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. aircraft were usually referred to by their registration (in Stardusts Therefore a standard signoff would be sent as the The Lancastrian's vanishing act happened at a time of considerable political turmoil in South America. This gives us the very 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! Therefore a standard signoff would be sent as the Despite Stardusts fate now fully resolved, the mystery of STENDEC is still argued to this day, with no definitive conclusion on what Dennis Harmer was intending to communicate that evening. _._. So mysterious was the disappearance of the plane - coupled with it's final strange message - that Stardust became entwined in UFO theories. The actual Morse code which the Chilean Operator believed she received was: S T E N D E C Discussion Improperly loaded, it crashed on landing, killing 80 of the people on board -- at the time, the worst air disaster in world history. By Plane and Pilot Updated December 12, 2019 Save Article. message from Star Dust - "E.T.A. Banksters, Peasants, and Kim Jong Un's Grandpa: A Parable for Our Times. 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. STENDEC - Solved?! 1. 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. Don Bennett, its manager, had already been fired by then, partly as a result of his insistence to all and sundry that Star Tiger was a victim of sabotage and that the British Government, for unknown but nefarious reasons of its own, was covering up the crime. simple message SCTI AR (or in layman's terms "Santiago, over"). The site had been difficult to reach. They were in a remarkable state of preservation; freeze-dried by icy winds, the remains had not suffered bacteriological decay. If not V, then the first letters might have been EIN, or IAR, but these combinations lead nowhere. Their curse was too much sky. . It makes me want to write out the Morse code and play with the spacing. 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. The official 1947 report into Stardusts disappearance highlighted a number of possibilities as to what likely happened to the ill-fated flight, with multiple factors potentially playing a role in its demise. recognized signoff or 'end of message' signal was 'AR' (with no space Something like "We're completely screwed.". [11] The head of BSAA, Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, personally directed an unsuccessful five-day search. People all over the world had reported hundreds of flying saucer sightings during the last two weeks of June 1947. The radio operator misheard the signal. With that in mind, and the fact that the operator himself mentioned that Harmer sent the message extremely quickly, its likely that this was the message after all. unanswered. selection of the ideas. [6], A recovered propeller showed that the engine had been running at near-cruising speed at the time of the impact. In 2000 the Argentine Army detachment found the debris scattered over one square kilometer, a relatively small area, so the bomb theory was discarded. Theories include everything from sabotage to aliens. Morse allows a maximum of four dots and dashes in any letter, narrowing the possibility for mistakes. Lancasters had four Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the front-line combat engine that powered the latest Spitfire and Mustang fighters. 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. It consisted of the single word "STENDEC". Scherer, J. just confirmed his time of arrival? much harder in Morse code.-.. / . For a more detailed explanation Grand Duchess Anastasia (with her arm around her brother) is shown with the rest of the Russian royal family in 1913. [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. operator to scramble the 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. _.. . The first letter has to be V, and the rest just fall into place-ALP-a perfect match in Morse. Some things can be said with some degree of certainty. The Chilean operator did mention how Harmers messages came through unusually fast, so there is every chance that some letters were incorrectly spaced and caused confusion to the control tower. - - . . Morse '._._.' One of those two people was Nando Parrado and in his book "Miracle in the Andes" he describes that their flight also left in poor, inadvisable conditions. Presumed to have crash landed somewhere along the route, a five day effort began by both Chilean and Argentine search teams, including fellow BSAA pilots, yet no trace of the aircraft or its passengers were found. [1][2], The last Morse code message sent by Star Dust was "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS STENDEC". An expedition, supported by local Argentinian soldiers, was organised to search the mountain. 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. 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). (ETA LATE) All rights reserved. The flight was conducted in zero-visibility conditions, so its unlikely the crew had any idea their plane was about to impact a mountainside. They may be similar, but it is still hard to imagine an experienced Another expose from ProPublica propublica.org Bonnie Martin kept the bleeding secret for as long as she could. An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. Back to 'Vanished: The Plane That Disappeared' programme pageTranscriptFurther information / -. Sometimes These Enigmas Never Decipher. Star Dust, registration G-AGWH, an Avro 691 Lancastrian 3, departed Buenos Aires for Santiago at 13.46 on 2 August 1947. 20 passengers and crew were lost. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). 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. Again, this is the same as ST, only with different spacing.- (V) Procedures for sending and receiving messages were and are standardised whether you are services or civilian operators.Regarding the 'mystery' surrounding Harmer's last transmission.Firstly, an operator always has in front of them a written copy of the message being sent. 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. (STENDEC) 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. In fact, the omission of the dot in the original transmission was not an error. and had the same word repeated by the aircraft twice in succession. 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. A faulty oxygen system cant be ruled 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. 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.