The mystery of the Star Dust's final message

[Atlas]

British South American Airways’ Avro Lancastrian Mk.III, G-AGWH, R.M.A. Star Dust.

Posted by Dr Morris K Jessup

On August 2, 1947, the British South American Airways plane, Lancastrian Star Dust, mysteriously vanished on a flight over the Andes. It would not have been so surprising if the craft had disappeared in the high peaks of the Andes, but – she was due to land at the airport at Santiago, Chile, at 5:45 PM, she sent out a signal stating her time of arrival. That is just four minutes from the airport, almost within sight of the control tower.

At the end of the message came a word "Stendec," loud and clear and given out very fast. The Chilean Air Force operator, at Santiago, queried the word which he did not understand. He heard it twice repeated by the plane. No explanation of the word has ever been found.

Nothing further was heard from the plane although calls were sent out. The plane never arrived, and from that day to this the mystery has never been solved. Searchers were made by ski troops and planes and by skilled mountaineers and automobiles over an area of 250 square miles, in vain. That plane carried a crew of five men and there were six passengers. The pilot, Captain R. J. Cook, had crossed the Andes eight times as second pilot. Four minutes from the landing strip – what happened?

Actually, the wreckage was found in 1998. Investigators determined that the airliner had flown into the glacier at high speed. However, the mystery of the final radio message remains. The last Morse code message sent by Star Dust was:

"ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS STENDEC"

Posted by Brian Dunning
All kinds of people have made all kinds of guesses about what STENDEC might have meant. None of them are very convincing.

Dr. Carlos Bauzá, the crash investigator, has remarked: “We have consulted everyone who flew these planes and even appealed through the British press to see if any pilots who flew these aircraft could explain whether s-t-e-n-d-e-c was a code word or something to do with weather conditions, or give us any information at all. We couldn’t find the answer. I think that in the end s-t-e-n-d-e-c is going to be the final unsolved mystery in the story of ‘Stardust’.”

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Sources: http://projectavalon.net/Dr_Morris_K...or_the_UFO.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_BS...cident#STENDEC
http://www.ntskeptics.org/2010/2010d...cember2010.pdf
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4231

[Sunny-side-up]

Hmm? 'STENDEC' - 'DESCENT'

[Atlas]

Posted by Sunny-side-up (here)
Hmm? 'STENDEC' - 'DESCENT'

Yes, 'STENDEC' is an anagram of 'DESCENT' but why would the radio operator play with letters just 4 minutes before landing ? Maybe he was bored or maybe he didn't like his job

A popular theory is that STENDEC is an anagram of DESCENT and the letters were re-arranged due to Harmer suffering from the effects of hypoxia. A person suffering hypoxia is unlikely to make the same mistake consistently three times in succession and is very unlikely to create an anagram of the intended word. Furthermore, a normal message would not be expected to consist of the single word 'descent'. (source)

There was a documentary aired in 1999:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=x7HlJbEVThQ

[NoNeedForAName]

Posted by buares (here)
Actually, the wreckage was found in 1998. Investigators determined that the airliner had flown into the glacier at high speed. However, the mystery of the final radio message remains.

STENDEC = Star en dead reckoning

or

STENDEC = Star en deadstick

or

STENDEC = Star en decalage

I don't know anything about aviation, but thinking about simplicity of a language, I would guess the third has better chances of being right.


Aviation Glossary
http://www.aerofiles.com/glossary.html

DEAD RECKONING - In pioneer flight before radio, beacons, and accurate maps, flying distances much by instinct and guesswork, and referring to whatever landmarks were below, was quite routine. The "dead" part simply meant "straight," as in the nautical "dead ahead," and pilots often relied heavily on the IRON COMPASS for cross-country flights over unfamiliar territory.

DEADSTICK - Descending flight with engine and propeller stopped.

DECALAGE - The difference in angular settings [Angles of Attack] of the wings of a biplane or multiplane.


EDIT: according to Google Translator, English to Spanish,

dead reckoning = navegación a estima
deadstick = deadstick
decalage = decalage


EDIT 2: Nah... the second one makes all the sense...

[SPIRIT WOLF]

Now this is very strange, that word STENDEC, well if my memory serves me right there was a ufo case i read in a book in the 70's, and the term STENDEK was used, must try and locate that. Trivia I agree but had to throw it in here

[Atlas]

Posted by SPIRIT WOLF (here)
Now this is very strange, that word STENDEC, well if my memory serves me right there was a ufo case i read in a book in the 70's, and the term STENDEK was used, must try and locate that. Trivia I agree but had to throw it in here

I think you are talking about the 1970s Spanish magazine about UFOs which appropriated STENDEK as its title: