The Star Dust Vanishing

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.
***********

Now many of you must be really familiar with this crash. BBC did a great documentary on this.

Although the crash reason was told and very convincing too, i have always been amused by one part of that drama….the word STENDEC….. These are some of the suggested arguments…

… / – / . / -. / -.. / . / -.-.
S T E N D E C

ANAGRAMS

The Theory
Many people wrote pointing out that STENDEC is an anagram of descent. Variations suggested that the crew might have been suffering from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) as the Lancastrian was unpressurised and the plane was flying at 24000 feet, which would have led the radio operator to scramble the message. Other explanations for the appearance of an anagram in an otherwise routine message included a dyxlexic radio operator and/or receiver in Santiago, and playfulness on behalf of Stardust’s radio operator.

Discussion
Whilst it’s true that the Lancastrian was unpressurised, the crew were all supplied with oxygen. A faulty oxygen system can’t be ruled out, but seems unlikely. Furthermore, whilst it is relatively easy to imagine STENDEC being scrambled into descent in English, it is much harder in Morse code.
-.. / . / … / -.-. / . / -. / – (Descent)
… / – / . / -. / -.. / . / -.-. (STENDEC)
And even less likely that the same morse dyslexia would be repeated three times.

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.

INITIALS

The Theory
Various people came up with intriguing, imaginative and sometimes amusing messages based on using STENDEC as a series of initials: Hence we have:
“Santiago tower message now descending entering cloud” (or “Santiago tower aircraft now descending entering cloud”)
“Stardust tank empty no diesel expected crash”
“Systems to the end navigation depends entirely on circle” (although this correspondent conceded that “the last bit may be a bit muddled”).
“Santiago tower even navigator doesn’t exactly know”

Discussion
All these variations seem implausible to a greater or lesser extent. Morse code experts we have consulted believe that it is highly unlikely that a radio operator would resort to convoluted messages based on initials.

Explanations based in Morse code

The theory
Perhaps the most plausible explanations we have heard are firmly based in Morse code, and have come from people highly familiar with this method of communication. Several people have pointed out that the sign off for a Morse code message is AR. The Morse for AR is
.- /.-.
which is identical – although with different spacings – to EC
. /-.-.

Similarly, another Morse expert has pointed out that to attract attention it is common to use the dots and dash for V as a calling up sign. Again, this is the same as ST, only with different spacing.
…- (V)
… /- (ST)

That would leave just “END”, sandwiched between a signal attracting attention, and another signing off.

Another explanation, advanced at the time of the disappearance, was that a small rearrangement of the dots and dashes (for example losing the first two dots) yields ETA LATE – apparently a common method of signalling a late arrival amongst RAF radio operators.
. / – / .- / .-.. / .- / – / . (ETA LATE)
… / – / . / -. / -.. / . / -.-. (STENDEC)

Discussion
Why would the operator say end? Possibly because he was finishing Morse transmissions prior to picking up voice communication. Voice communication was only possible at this time when the aircraft was very close to the airport, and one pilot and radio operator who flew at this time reports that it was common to inform the airport that Morse transmissions were closing down. The problem? Why would the operator use a calling up sign in the middle of his message?

And similarly why would an operator say ETA LATE when he had only just confirmed his time of arrival?

—> Now there were taken from BBC.
******************

Now i have taken this up as Summer Project and willl be trying to find a valid solution (if possible), what are your reviews and thoughts on this subject?