The crew probably did not panic, but they were concerned about the lack of visibility and landmarks. based in Morse code, and have come from people highly familiar with What was radio operator Dennis Harmer, a highly trained wartime and civilian operator, trying to say? - / . 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. Without an explanation the case remains a mystery. Americas owner-flown aircraft enthusiasts and active-pilot resource, delivered to your inbox! Both men were last spotted being arrested by deputy Steve Calkins for driving without a license. Furthermore, whilst it is relatively easy same combination of dashes and dots as STENDEC, but shifting the spaces in Therefore a standard signoff would be sent as the very close to the airport, and one pilot and radio operator who To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). See link for the answer to this 63 year old question. On board the British South American Airways flight were five crew members and six passengers, including the Captain, Commander Reginald J. Cook, an experienced and former RAF pilot during World War II. Cook had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The theory about it being a code for the airport makes a lot more sense. So mysterious was the disappearance of the plane - coupled with it's final strange message - that Stardust became entwined in UFO theories. 5 STENDEC Another mystery involving a plane played out on August 2, 1947. the disappearance of the plane - coupled with its final strange 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. The Stardust could not be raised and no wreckage could be found. The Lancastrian's vanishing act happened at a time of considerable political turmoil in South America. Dennis Harmer at 17:41 on 2nd August 1947. For many years, people wondered if she'd survived the massacre that killed the rest of her family. They had been . They included Palestinian, Swiss, German and British passengers, a diplomatic courier and the crew: the pilot Reginald Cooke, 44; first officer Norman Hilton Cooke, 39; radiotelegraph operator Dennis Harmer, 27; second officer Donald Checklin, 27; and Iris Evans. 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. /-.-. 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. 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. The actual It makes me want to write out the Morse code and play with the spacing. With the plane supposedly minutes away from the airport, the final word from the Lancastrian became shrouded in mystery when the plane, along with everyone on board, vanished into thin air. It was the manicured hand of a young woman lying among the ice and rocks. 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. Conspiracy Theory Watch: Don't Drink the Kool Aid. 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. What was experienced radio operator Dennis Harmer trying to say? STENDEC Solved (Mystery message from 1947 Andes plane crash) By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. 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. As the compressed snow turned to ice, the wreckage would have been incorporated into the body of the glacier, with fragments emerging many years later and much further down the mountain. He flew Lancaster bombers and got medals for bringing back his aircraft one time on a wing and a prayer.". / -. code. name at the end of a routine message. 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! This is fascinating. So apparently the mystery hasn't been solved, because I don't see anything in the article suggesting anyone understands what Stendec meant. . ATLANTA (AP) The woman flying out of Philadelphias airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. 10 'Unsolved' Mysteries That Have Been Solved. All these variations seem implausible to a greater or lesser extent. Seems very unlikely. One of the two main landing wheels was still fully inflated after a half century! The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed that after initially unsuccessful attempts, Argentinian scientists have found close family matches. Though it had as its General Manager a pilot of exceptional distinction -- Air Vice Marshal D.C.T. of Stendec. On 2 August 1947, Star Dust, a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes. In fact, this conspiracy ran for so long that even a Spanish magazine published in the 1970s, which was dedicated to UFOs and the paranormal, named itself after the now infamous morse code. 1 Pan Am Flight 7 Some things can be said with some degree of certainty. 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. Since the programme transmitted we have received literally hundreds method of signalling a late arrival amongst RAF radio operators.. / - / .- / .-.. / .- / - / . Although the larger mystery was finally solved, many still wonder how experienced pilots (there were three on board) lost control of the aircraft in a seemingly manageable situation. Variations suggested that the crew might have been suffering from Perhaps the most plausible explanations we have heard are firmly Discussion The chances of all of these failing are extremely low, so the theory of hypoxia and the anagram has been ruled out by many. The Theory And even less likely that the same morse dyslexia would be repeated Why would the operator say end? They may be similar, but it is still hard to imagine an experienced 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. The theory about it meaning emergency crash landing is interesting but given a lack of sources outside of a few people telling anecdotes I don't know how believable it is. Bennett finished his life as a supporter, and occasional candidate, for a variety of xenophobic and extremist political parties -- a sad end for one of the world's greatest pilots and air navigators of the 1930s and 1940s. 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 hastily sent morse message gives us : We will never With the word not existing in international morse code, or any spoken language at the time, interpreting STENDEC has led to many varying theories. attention, and another signing off. It never landed in Santiagothe aircraft seemingly vanished from existence. Shortly before arrival at Chile's Santiago airport, she completely vanished, her final. / - /. The Avro Lancastrian began its life as a British Lancaster bomber in World War II. Morse code experts we have consulted believe that it is highly unlikely [6], A recovered propeller showed that the engine had been running at near-cruising speed at the time of the impact. (0), By Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. / -.-. recognized signoff or 'end of message' signal was 'AR' (with no space Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. From this time That's also how Carole Lombard died. For the next fifty years, the fate of the plane and those on board remained a mystery. Even if exchanges between two operators become conversational, the operator writes the reply before sending it.From this, and from standard morse procedure, Harmer's transmission would be to inform Stardust's ETA, destination city, airport code SCTI ( Los Cerillos), and conclude with prosign AR (dit dah, dit dah dit) to end transmission. Pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place in 1998, when mountain climbers in the Andes found the planes Rolls-Royce engine. 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. Los Cerrillos airport Santiago was given was SCTI. You can post your own LGF Pages simply by registering a free account with us. that a radio operator would resort to convoluted messages based Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images. The public, still reeling from the now-famous flying saucer incident in Roswell, New Mexico, a few weeks earlier, went wild with theories, speculating everything from sabotage to alien abduction. 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". message - that Stardust became entwined in UFO theories. STENDEC" That wasthe last message received from Star Dust, sent by Radio Officer Dennis Harmer at 17:41 on 2nd August 1947. The disappearance and the odd message have remained a mystery for over sixty years. Discussion 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. Their curse was too much sky. 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. It was also noted that, despite being a pilot for four years and accruing a total flying time of nearly 2,000 hours for both the RAF and the BSAA, this was Cooks first flight across the Andes as Captain. 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. 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. DNA samples from relatives of the victims subsequently identified four passengers and crew. / -.-. [1][2], The last Morse code message sent by Star Dust was "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS STENDEC". The word simply has no meaning in any language, not even in Morse code. 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. Neither men were taken to the jail. Charles Willoughby, Cooked Intel, and the Far Right. course. Four letter ICAO codes for airports had 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. message from Star Dust -. It was firstly noted that the Trans-Andean journey from Buenos Aires to Santiago can be taken via three routes: The Central (and most direct) via Mendoza, The Southern via Planchon and The Northern via San Juan. Discussion 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. Mistakenly believing they had already cleared the mountain tops, they started their descent when they were in fact still behind cloud-covered peaks. French air safety investigators concluded in a 2012 report that the tragedy likely had been caused by an odd cascade of errors. some similarities both in Morse code and English /- /.-/ .-./ -../ ..-/ / - (Stardust) 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. This theory is an easy one to break apart. Ok, so that covers the theory of the mysterious phrase, but it doesnt answer the mystery of what happened to the plane. 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. STENDEC. It would be the last anyone ever heard from Star Dust. Submissions should outline a mystery and provide a link to a more detailed review of the case such as a Wiki article or news report. . 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. full message sent at 17.41 hrs was as follows: But why would Harmer send such an important part of his message in a scrambled format? At 17.41 a Chilean Air Force Morse operator in Santiago picked up a message: ETA [estimated time of arrival] Santiago 17.45 hrs. . 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. three times.STENDEC/Stardust Using the But the budgetary toll of persistent underfunding is unmistakable. Then four years ago, several Argentinians climbing Mount Tupungato stumbled across part of a Rolls Royce engine, fragments of fuselage and strips of bleached clothing. With a diplomat on board, the press freely speculated that a bomb had exploded in mid-flight. operator to scramble the message. The most likely reality is that sending STENDEC was a mistake of some sort by Star Dusts radio operator. The flight was conducted in zero-visibility conditions, so its unlikely the crew had any idea their plane was about to impact a mountainside. "Santiago tower message now descending entering cloud" (or "Santiago word is meaningless in almost every language, and trying to use 2023 Little Green Footballs The final apparently unintelligible word "STENDEC" has been a source Full video here breaking down the story - STENDEC - The World's Most Mysterious Morse Code [Transcript From Video Below] Perhaps with more time, an additional transmission would have been sent explaining STENDEC, but, as things stand, while Some Try Explaining, Nobody Deciphers Enigmatic Code. Read on these 10 strange mysteries that were solved later. SCTI is the international airline code for Los Cerrillos Airport, and AR is a commonly used prosign for the word OUT, or End Of Transmission. [11] The head of BSAA, Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, personally directed an unsuccessful five-day search. of mystery, confusion and intrigue ever since. A few years later, more debris was found on the mountain, suggesting that the plane had made a head-on impact with the ground due to the close proximity and condition of the wreckage. -, Press J to jump to the feed. [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). But what was Jon Stewart asks when we will have enough guns -- watch to the end to watch him absolutely stick the landing. / - / . An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. Jos Avery has been posting his impressive photos Twitter continues to crumble bit by bit. Fiddling with Morse code seems to offer the best chance of getting 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. 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. / -. . Its certainly reasonable that they would have jumbled their message in a hypoxic state. The radio operator misheard the signal. /, which is VALP, the call sign for the airport at Valparaiso, some 110 kilometers north of Santiago. attention it is common to use the dots and dash for V as a calling normal for the Radio Operator to start the message by transmitting the name When he asked for clarification, the crew repeated it two more times, STENDEC. STENDEC. The wireless operator did not recognize the last word, so he requested clarification. Pages Sign In Register Forgot password? Sign up for our newsletter, full of tips, reviews and more! Los Cerrillos airport Santiago was given was SCTI. Their discovery revived. That is the official ruling of an Oklahoma court. [23], "Stendec" redirects here. STENDEC - Solved?! On July 3, a rancher at Roswell, New Mexico, claimed to have found a UFO crash site with four alien bodies. 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"). I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. begun to be used four months earlier in April 1947 and the four-letter code This sentence now makes perfect sense, with Harmer announcing that they were expected to arrive in Santiago at 17:45 hours, at Los Cerrillos Airport.

Dove Commercial Mastectomy 2020, Mayor Of London Candidates, Side Roll Irrigator For Sale, Getting A Building Permit After The Fact Victoria, Articles S