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STENDEC: Airliner 'Star Dust' Lost In the Andes (1947)

rynner2

rynner2

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This was posted on another thread
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 475#409475

It was in the Andes . . .

Horizon did a programme on it, the transcript is here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/20 ... shed.shtml

Quote:

On August 2nd 1947, a British civilian version of the wartime Lancaster bomber took off from Buenos Aires airport on a scheduled flight to Santiago. There were 5 crew and 6 passengers on board the plane - named "Stardust". But Stardust never made it to Santiago. Instead it vanished when it was apparently just a few minutes from touchdown. One final strange morse code radio message - "STENDEC" - was sent, but after that nothing more was heard from the plane.

I'm reviving this little mystery as it featured in

10 Things You Didn't Know About... - 3. Avalanches

Iain Stewart travels across mountain ranges and glaciers to reveal ten remarkable stories about avalanches.

Over a million avalanches happen throughout the world each year, and yet we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the chaotic turbulence inside an avalanche. Scientists have had to put themselves right inside a raging avalanche to find out more.

Stewart shows how the deadliest avalanche in history killed 18,000 people in three minutes; how Hannibal's army was devastated by avalanches as he crossed the Alps to fight Rome; why an avalanche was key to one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time; and how global warming may increase the rate of ice avalanches in the future.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... valanches/

It seems the plane crashed into the mountains and triggered an avalache that covered it, hence none of the search planes spotted it. For 53 years the wreckage moved down the mountain concealed in a glacier.

However, the word 'Stendec' is still a mystery!
 
I do not know much about morse code, except that it is made up of a series of dots and dashes. Would it be possible that the morse for STENDEC could be altered to make up a recognisable word?
 
tilly50 said:
I do not know much about morse code, except that it is made up of a series of dots and dashes. Would it be possible that the morse for STENDEC could be altered to make up a recognisable word?
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Only if the operator was really ham-fisted!

This is unlikely in an era when Morse was still commonly used.
Morse messages are generally transmitted by a hand-operated device such as a telegraph key, so there are variations introduced by the skill of the sender and receiver — more experienced operators can send and receive at faster speeds. In addition, individual operators differ slightly, for example using slightly longer or shorter dashes or gaps, perhaps only for particular characters. This is called their "fist", and receivers can recognize specific individuals by it alone.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code

I used to know Morse code, but I'm very rusty now. So, using Wiki as a crib, here's STENDEC in Morse:

... | - | . | -. | -.. | . | -.-.

(I've used ' | ' for the spaces.)
The Chilean radio operator at Santiago states that the reception of the signal was loud and clear but that it was given out very fast. Not understanding the word "STENDEC" he queried it and had the same word repeated by the aircraft twice in succession. A solution to the word "STENDEC" has not been found. From this time on nothing further was heard from the aircraft and no contact was made with the control tower at Santiago. All further calls were unanswered.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/20 ... ndec.shtml
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It has been pointed out that Stendec is an anagram of 'descent', but that hardly gets us much further!
 
rynner2 said:
It has been pointed out that Stendec is an anagram of 'descent', but that hardly gets us much further!
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The same combination of letters also gives us "scented."
 
I've also read a theory that a panicking radio operator may have been trying to spell out a message which began 'STARDUST' but it all went pearshaped.
Seems more likely to me than just scrambling the letters.
 
escargot1 said:
I've also read a theory that a panicking radio operator may have been trying to spell out a message which began 'STARDUST' but it all went pearshaped.
Seems more likely to me than just scrambling the letters.
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That was discussed in the BBC link in the OP:
STENDEC/Stardust

The Theory
The radio operator meant to say Stardust. STENDEC and Stardust have some similarities both in Morse code and English
... /- /.-/ .-./ -../ ..-/ .../ - (Stardust)
... / - / . / -. / -.. / . / -.-. (STENDEC)


Discussion
They may be similar, but it is still hard to imagine an experienced radio operator getting his plane’s name wrong on 3 occasions. Furthermore, aircraft were usually referred to by their registration (in Stardust’s case G-AGWH) rather than the romantic names airlines gave them. And finally, there seems to be no reason to transmit the plane’s name at the end of a routine message.
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Also, if the operator thought he was landing shortly, why would he be panicking?

We now know the plane crashed into a mountain because of a navigation error. If they were in cloud they may have been unaware of the impending crash until the moment of impact.
 
Nobody knows for sure, though. I'm going with the UFO theory.
 
...abducted by Chinese Lanterns. They hurt cows too. And set light to thatch.
 
Maybe the pilot was going all hippy dippy space brothers and made his last message "Stardust" evocative of that? It's probable the message was never finished anyway, so it genuinely is something we'll never know.
 
gncxx said:
Maybe the pilot was going all hippy dippy space brothers and made his last message "Stardust" evocative of that? It's probable the message was never finished anyway, so it genuinely is something we'll never know.
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Wireless Telegraphy (WT) required a trained Morse operator. The pilot couldn't fly the plane and work a Morse code transmitter.
The full message sent at 17.41 hrs was as follows:

'ETA [estimated time of arrival] Santiago 17.45 hrs STENDEC'

...

The 17.41 signal was received by Santiago only 4 minutes before the ETA. The Chilean radio operator at Santiago states that the reception of the signal was loud and clear but that it was given out very fast. Not understanding the word "STENDEC" he queried it and had the same word repeated by the aircraft twice in succession. A solution to the word "STENDEC" has not been found. From this time on nothing further was heard from the aircraft and no contact was made with the control tower at Santiago. All further calls were unanswered.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/20 ... ndec.shtml
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So it seems the message was finished, giving the 4 minute ETA, and the strange word Stendec was confirmed twice.


For those who haven't read the links in the OP, it seems that the plane was flying very high to avoid bad weather over the Andes. But this put them into the jetstream, which (unknown to the crew) slowed their progress. They thought they had passed the Andes and began to descend, only to crash into the mountains on the Argentinian side.
 
rynner2 said:
...For those who haven't read the links in the OP, it seems that the plane was flying very high to avoid bad weather over the Andes. But this put them into the jetstream, which (unknown to the crew) slowed their progress. They thought they had passed the Andes and began to descend, only to crash into the mountains on the Argentinian side.
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But isn't that the most likely explanation using the information available? As opposed to the definite explanation, I mean.
 
On a tangent: the name Aconcagua - which is mentioned in the story - always sends a little shiver down my spine. I remember being quite affected - when I was a spooklet - by the story of a mountaineering expedition which disappeared on Aconcagua, a couple of raving survivors shouting about murder being the only remnant of the original party to make it back down.

I'm pretty sure that this was a stock story in many of those Unexplained type magazines and books of the 70's and 80's, but I can find no reference to it now.
 
Spookdaddy said:
rynner2 said:
...For those who haven't read the links in the OP, it seems that the plane was flying very high to avoid bad weather over the Andes. But this put them into the jetstream, which (unknown to the crew) slowed their progress. They thought they had passed the Andes and began to descend, only to crash into the mountains on the Argentinian side.
Click to expand...
But isn't that the most likely explanation using the information available? As opposed to the definite explanation, I mean.
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WTF do you expect!

If you have alternative theories, please enlighten us!

And an explanation of Stendec would be nice too! ;)
 
:shock: WTF indeed? Where the hell did that come from? Why so aggressive, Rynner?

I was only pointing out that it's the best explanation, rather than actual knowledge - there is a difference.

Ferfooksake!
 
Spookdaddy said:
:shock: WTF indeed? Where the hell did that come from? Why so aggressive, Rynner?

I was only pointing out that it's the best explanation, rather than actual knowledge - there is a difference.

Ferfooksake!
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Ah! Rynner was involved in the original cover up! You have outed him!
 
rynner2 said:
...If you have alternative theories, please enlighten us!

And an explanation of Stendec would be nice too! ;)
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No, none.

I did wonder if the apparently garbled nature of the message could have been an indication of hypoxia - but I note that option has been deemed unlikely by at least one commentator on the BBC site.

I can't believe for a moment that the message is an improvised acronym - even in a field as specialised as aviation the list of possible meanings for a single letter is enormous, and open to vastly differing interpretations, unless it's being used in a recognised sequence. However, shorthand phrases are used in aviation and maybe improvised shorthand is more likely to be interpreted in the correct way. I did at first wonder if the radio operator was sending a message which began STarboard ENgine - but I ran out of ideas when it came to the DEC. Also, that would suggest that the crew thought they had a problem, and the circumstances surrounding the sending of the message appear to suggest that the crew actually felt that they were engaged in a normal approach.

The only thing I would add is that one of the symptoms of hypoxia is euphoria. I'm no expert, but I wonder if this feeling of extreme well-being might influence the sufferers attitude to hazard even while trying to deal with it. The counter-intuitive nature of such behaviour would of course be invisible to the person receiving and/or, trying to interpret, a radio message.
 
Spookdaddy said:
On a tangent: the name Aconcagua - which is mentioned in the story - always sends a little shiver down my spine. I remember being quite affected - when I was a spooklet - by the story of a mountaineering expedition which disappeared on Aconcagua, a couple of raving survivors shouting about murder being the only remnant of the original party to make it back down.
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Aha! To continue the tangent, I eventually found this:

During the austral summer, in 1973, an event not yet quite clearly explained happened on Mount Aconcagua, when a group of climbers from the United States attempted to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the western hemisphere.

Carmie Deofe, William Eubank, James Petroske, John Selton, Arnold Mc Millen, William Séller, John Cooper y Jeannette Johnson, along with a local guide were all seasoned climbers and knew very well all the necessary techniques to climb a mountain like Mount Aconcagua.

Nevertheless, problems began early during the expedition, and then, some of its members began to abandon their efforts one by one. Defoe, the leader of the group left first, leaving Mc Millen - a professional mountain guide himself - on charge, but things could not be managed coherently anymore.

Then Eubank, Shelton and Petroske decided to quit, and near the summit, the Argentine guide was forced to leave the remaining four members of the expedition on a high camp to take Petroske back down.

He considered that the mountain was too dangerous to leave Petroske on his own.

Meanwhile, the remaining climbers attempted to reach the summit, but when the guide returned along with members of the border patrol to take down the rest of the group, they found Seller and Mc Millen walking in circles and babbling, crying and blinded by the sunlight.

They told the newcomers that Johnson had split the group, and that Cooper had died.

On december 1973, the body of John Cooper was recovered; during the autopsy it was learned that he had suffered a massive abdominal wound, probably produced by his piolet, and a series of skull fractures.

Jeannette Johnson's body was found during 1975. She froze to death wearing inadequate clothes. Her body was recovered after a lot of efforts failed, during 1976.

Police suspected that a crime had been committed, but nothing could be proved. Mountaineers believe that the accident was caused by the group's total lack of cohesion, leadership and internal disputes...
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Source

Sounds like hypothermia: sufferers can become irrational and occasionally violent. There are some other symptoms which are not, however, mentioned - although, I suppose, the detail about Johnson wearing inadequate clothing may be a reference to irrational undressing rather than the fact that she went out without the right gear.
 
OK. Here's a thought. Not so much an explanation as a re-framing of the central question. Here goes...

The message transmitted wasn't simply 'STENDEC.' It was actually "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 STENDEC." Well, 'ETA' is 'Estimated Time of Arrival' obviously. So 'STENDEC' itself seems to follow on from the rest of the message. One of the theories is that it stands for "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 S[tandard] T[ime] END EC."

Now, I'm not saying this is right or wrong. It certainly doesn't answer the whole question, but just think about it like this; if the meassage had simply been, "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 ST END", it might've made perfect sense and never even have been questioned or remembered.

So, my point is this, maybe the mystery isn't actually "What does STENDEC mean?" but "What does the 'EC' at the end of the message mean?"

If you'll allow me a stab in the dark I'd suggest the following theory: It's actually a single coherent message, using a logical and coherent system of abvreviations.

Why would some one continue to add something after the 'END'? Well, maybe again, it was a logical continuation of a single phrase. What could logically finish of a phrase like this? Very few options actually. END (OF MESSAGE?), END (TRANSISSION?) Well, in morse, 'EC' is /* - * - */ It's maybe worth noting that 'TR', a reasonable abreviation of 'TRANSMISSION' , would be /- * - */ Just remove one "dot" and suddenly you've got "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 S[tandard] T[ime] END TR[ansmission]" A perfectly coherent message.

Now, I don't know if the use of the phases 'standard time' and 'transmission' were regularly used or even appropriate, and no, it doesn't explain why it was sent more than once, but it's hardly unreasonable to suggest that someone could make a rather minor mistake twice while listening to a "very fast" crackling morse transmission, experienced or not. Certainly more believable than aliens, or cryptic anagrams. ;)
 
EC? Electronic Communication?
 
Well, who knows?

I don't know when you read my post, but I've just edited it to add a theory. It's just that though 'a theory.' :)
 
@ emina:

Interesting ideas, but not convincing.

The point is, with Morse (rather like modern txt msgs) the idea is to keep everything as brief as possible.

So when the sender puts out 'End', that means 'End of message, end of transmission'. Nothing further is required.

The fact that people involved at the time, those familiar with the Morse proceedures at the time, were baffled by the message (and hence remembered it as something unusual) implies that it was something odd.

ST for 'Standard Time' doesn't sound right either. If the time zone wasn't the local time zone, then the time zone would have been specified.

At that date, GMT was known as Z (nowadays it's UTC), so time zones east of Greenwich were Z+ (eg Moscow, Z+3), and those west were Z- (eg Peru, Z-5).

So, good try, but no coconut!
 
Spoil sport! :lol:

Glad to hear you're offering a coconut to the person who solves this by the way. It put James Randi's millions dollars in the shade! ;)
 
Maybe something went wierd in the air - they were hopelessly off course and everything was wrong with their instruments .. maybe an electormagnetic field also messed with their heads so the morse code operator thinking he was saying "descent" said "stendec" and was as mixed up as every instrument there... what do you think?
 
Crookshank said:
Maybe something went wierd in the air - they were hopelessly off course and everything was wrong with their instruments .. maybe an electormagnetic field also messed with their heads so the morse code operator thinking he was saying "descent" said "stendec" and was as mixed up as every instrument there... what do you think?
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A plausible explanation. People make errors when they are under pressure. Even without any EM fields when you're facing death typos happen.
 
Well its just that he spelled out the same word twice - which is a bit more going wrong than just panic or a typo - if something had somehow scrambled his brain so that the signals going from his brain to his hand were mixed up - that might explain why he did it twice because he was trying to compensate for being all scrambled up inside - like the instruments and things - I think it could have been an electromagnetic field or a small black hole.
 
But as some of the message wasn't garbled, that tends to argue against any brain-scrambling EM, etc going on.
 
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