Comments on: The Star Dust Mystery

By: RoflBeard

RoflBeard — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:24:13 +0000

DI article!….. Well to be honest they all are….however this has left me feeling empty I really wish I knew what happened in that plane just before it crashed.

By: Correct me if I'm wrong, but:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but: — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:08:29 +0000

guys guys calm down! i figured it out!
Shit!
Theres
Eels
Nestling
Down
Everyone’s
Crotch
theres a justifiable reason to crash a plane if i ever heard one

By: pedders

pedders — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:35:11 +0000

The only thing I can add to this is that as a now 50 year old; the word /acronym Standec has remained at the front of my mind since I was about 11. For some reason, I can’t explain, I just decided to Google it. The story as is; is familiar, however, my recollection is a little different. Now at this time I must admit I was an avid reader of anything to do with space travel, UFO’s etc. This was not a point of discussion with my pubescent friends. (Post Apollo 11). The thing I do recall, because I divulged it to my oldest friends, Julianne’s mother, that, as I recall a story was published, regarding a “Craft” landing at the end of an airstrip and, when challanged, transmitting the word Stendec, before disappearing. Maybe this is just a childhood fantasy, however, why is it still so vivid in my mind all these years later?

By: Oster

Oster — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:28:51 +0000

STRD AR

“Star Dust Out”

By: NEMESIS

NEMESIS — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:24:02 +0000

Just finish watching BBC documentary on this crash and my explanation for last transmission STENDEC was actual STENDECK , which the K was never recieved , as these individuals were all of RAF , the coded transmission was derived from “Sten” sten sub machine Gun , so Sten -deck , below the deck , sub-deck , below flight deck altitude , would be the most obvious meaning for last transmission !

By: hamsterherder

hamsterherder — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:29:01 +0000

[quote]dubyamd said: “perhaps the captain was dyslexic and was trying to say “DESCENT” instead of STENDEC… hrmmm…”[/quote]

i never thought of it like that. it makes sense. interesting article.

By: angus

angus — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:26:35 +0000

it must have been a very informal radio operator to use the plane’s “star” identification instead of its normal five-letter callsign (G-AGWH)…then again, maybe that callsign isn’t/wasn’t used in Morse transmissions…
However, if the message was indeed STENDEC, it is possible, in my opinion that DEC could be an abbreviation for the navigational term “declination” which, surprise surprise, is something pilots must factor in for dead-reckoning navigation; it has to do with the difference between true north and magnetic north, and also has something to do with wind drift, if I rightly remember.
But considering you accept my humble theory…then what would STEN be?

By: charlie4

charlie4 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:52:24 +0000

Very interesting article, especially the part about the aircraft being frozen in the glacier. The hypothesis about the jet stream is entirely plausible and highly likely. I agree with Davidh’s hypothesis of the radio transmission, in that the code word was sent correctly but misinterpreted by the radio receiver in Santiago. The most important of David’s observations is that the message was sent as a routine transmission – since the aircraft was flying in cloud, by the time that the crew realised that they were on a collision course with the mountain there would have been no time to fire off a message – let alone three. The fact that it contains an ETA means it was not a distress message. Good work.