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"). to imagine STENDEC being scrambled into descent in English, it is the plane was flying at 24000 feet, which would have led the radio A Pilot's Last Words: "STENDEC" - Plane & Pilot Magazine and had the same word repeated by the aircraft twice in succession. 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 crew probably did not panic, but they were concerned about the lack of visibility and landmarks. [14] Human remains were also recovered, including three torsos, a foot in an ankle boot and a manicured hand. 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. For those who aren't familiar, a flight carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and some of their family members crashed into the Andes in 1972. French air safety investigators concluded in a 2012 report that the tragedy likely had been caused by an odd cascade of errors. It is thought that the plane may have caused an avalanche upon impact, resulting in the snowy burial of the aircraft, concealing it from searchers whilst at the same time preserving it for its eventual discovery years later. (STENDEC). Yet one mystery remains:. Her sisters, boyfriend and sons knew nothing of her illness until suddenly, during a family gathering in October 2018 at a diner in Reading The Online Photographer lead me to this article. 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. tower aircraft now descending entering cloud") After an exhausting search, no trace of the aircraft was found. The Stardust could not be raised and no wreckage could be found. As might be inferred from that lineage, it was uncomfortable, noisy, and cramped. [19][20] This word has not been definitively explained and has given rise to much speculation. [citation needed], Mistakenly assuming their ground speed to be faster than it really was, the crew might have deduced that they had already safely crossed the Andes, and so commenced their descent to Santiago, whereas in fact they were still a considerable distance to the east-north-east and were approaching the cloud-enshrouded Tupungato Glacier at high speed. Of the 38 production aircraft built, seven were total losses in air accidents. 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. An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. Martin Colwell's theory on the mystery "STENDEC" Mistakenly believing they had already cleared the mountain tops, they started their descent when they were in fact still behind cloud-covered peaks. Since the programme transmitted we have received literally hundreds Plane and Pilot expands upon the vast base of knowledge and experience from aviations most reputable influencers to inspire, educate, entertain and inform. this method of communication. Top 10 Intriguing Mysteries Of South America - Listverse Five of the eight British victims have been identified. To my mind, STENDEC was the misheard signoff by Harmer. [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. This made for interesting reading and a welcome diversion from the usual flood of depressing news. From this time Solve the Mystery of STENDEC Readers' Theories Set #1 Posted January 31, 2001 next set. Due to the poor visibility caused by the storm, its possible that the crew were unaware that their plane was on course to collide with the mountainside, and unknowingly plummeted the aircraft into the summit before eventually succumbing to the elements. In morse code, there are various short-hand acronyms and abbreviations which help convey much longer messages quickly. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. Anagram Theory Full video here breaking down the story - STENDEC - The World's Most Mysterious Morse Code [Transcript From Video Below] No trace of the missing Lancastrian aircraft, named Star Dust, could be found. STENDEC and Stardust have I thought this had been solved in a documentary I watched. Could there be more to the story of Star Dusts crash? That would leave just "END", sandwiched between a signal attracting Perhaps the most plausible explanations we have heard are firmly The STENDEC Puzzle Ever since BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust vanished on a flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago, the ending of its final transmission - STENDEC - has continued to puzzle experts and amateurs alike. The first letter has to be V, and the rest just fall into place-ALP-a perfect match in Morse. Morse code experts we have consulted believe that it is highly unlikely The Lancastrian's vanishing act happened at a time of considerable political turmoil in South America. The trekkers had abandoned their pack mules lower down, and ascended with what they could carry. STENDEC Solved (Mystery message from 1947 Andes plane crash) So mysterious was the disappearance of the plane - coupled with it's final strange message - that Stardust became entwined in UFO theories. 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. amusing messages based on using STENDEC as a series of initials: Outside of the music world, Joel is a best-selling author, releasing The Realists Guide to a Successful Music Career, which features Kris Williams is a lesbian, and that means she wont be seeing her son anytime soon. - . 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 Stardust could not be raised and no wreckage could be found. I was a radio operator aboard an R.A.N. 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. Below we include a of mystery, confusion and intrigue ever since. 1. _._. The last word in Star Dust's final Morse code transmission to Santiago airport, "STENDEC", was received by the airport control tower four minutes before its planned landing and repeated twice; it has never been satisfactorily explained. '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. Whilst a reasonable theory on the surface, its unfortunately also quite reasonable to discredit. the last message received from Star Dust, sent by Radio Officer Before this message a series of entirely routine messages had been course. The dots and dash formed one letter, V: / . Another noticeable similarity is that the word STENDEC has some resemblance to the word STARDUST, and perhaps Harmer misspelled the name of the aircraft in morse code. It even inspired a new name for a UFO magazineSTENDEK. same combination of dashes and dots as STENDEC, but shifting the spaces in recognized signoff or 'end of message' signal was 'AR' (with no space 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. What was radio operator Dennis Harmer, a highly trained wartime and civilian operator, trying to say? [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". 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. 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. What did the crew of BSAA Flight CS-59 mean when they sent and repeated the cryptic message STENDEC via Morse code seconds before crashing? Mysteries NOVA Online | Vanished! | Theories (Feb. 8, 2001) - PBS Pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place in 1998, when mountain climbers in the Andes found the planes Rolls-Royce engine. Things like air turbulance (in my case, rough seas) also affect that rythm. / -. that a radio operator would resort to convoluted messages based . The site had been difficult to reach. This is fascinating. (STENDEC) Pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place in 1998, when mountain climbers in the Andes found the planes Rolls-Royce engine. Ice crystals accumulated on a probe, causing it to give incorrect speed readings and the autopilot system to disengage. SAR Technology - Aviation Cold Case Response 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. 5 STENDEC Another mystery involving a plane played out on August 2, 1947. [11] The head of BSAA, Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, personally directed an unsuccessful five-day search. An explanation of STENDEC .. - Fly With The Stars STENDEC Solved by John L. Scherer. Therefore a standard signoff would be sent as the The unit had to finish quickly. Discussion The word STENDEC was corrupted into Stendek and became. The crew of Stardust, including the radio operator Harmer, had all served in the RAF previously during WWII, so if this phrase is true, then it is possible that they were all familiar with the term and used it in a time of crisis. losing the first two dots) yields ETA LATE - apparently a common A FINAL WORDHorizon regrets that - due to the sheer volume of correspondence Another expose from ProPublica propublica.org Bonnie Martin kept the bleeding secret for as long as she could. - / . The word If one divides the same dots and dashes in STENDEC differently, the message reads: / . 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. [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. 1 Pan Am Flight 7 that final message from the ill-fated Lancastrian. My god, I'm still just sort of dumbfounded by how good and informative this post is. It has to be this one in my opinion. just confirmed his time of arrival? All further calls were But there are no old, bold pilots. 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. . It makes me want to write out the Morse code and play with the spacing. Really neat, I hadn't heard of this before. on initials. [16] If the airliner, which had to cross the Andes mountain range at 24,000 feet (7,300m), had entered the jet-stream zonewhich in this area normally blows from the west and south-west, resulting in the aircraft encountering a headwindthis would have significantly decreased the aircraft's ground speed. It would be like ending a story with once upon a time., Conclusion Ball lightning doesn't happen very often, so it hasn't been recorded under natural conditions. Recent Pages by Shiplord Kirel (Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie): This is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. 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. (STENDEC) Sometimes human error leads to some of the most interesting mysteries but generally when you hear hooves you want to think horses before you think zebras. With a diplomat on board, the press freely speculated that a bomb had exploded in mid-flight. operator to scramble the message. 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. 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! Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images. The STENDEC Puzzle | Science 2.0 A Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go. STENDEC - Solved?! Some politicians have irresponsibly suggested that every new IRS employee will be a gun-toting enforcement agent. 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. Americas owner-flown aircraft enthusiasts and active-pilot resource, delivered to your inbox!