In an aircraft you have no solid contact with the earth, how fast your going does not always relate to your ground speed.  An over simplified way of explaining air speed is this, in 1947 the knots gauge had a diaphragm inside the gauge which was tensioned against a spring, air is forced into a “Pitot” tube which is fed into the gauge and moves the diaphragm against the spring, the needle goes up showing your airspeed.

On this day in 1947 a slip stream was recorded travelling at over 150 mph, so the Lancastrian was flying straight into the jet stream,  We assume the knots gauge was reading approximately 200 knots cruising speed for the Lancastrian, in reality the relative ground speed was only 50 mph! the crew had no way of confirming their true ground position, due to 10/10s cloud.

Dead reckoning showed the fated Star dust was 30 miles clear of the mountain range a message in morse code was sent from Star dust flight CS59 at 17.41hrs the message read “E.T.A. [estimated time of arrival] 17.45hrs at Santiago airport S.T.E.N.D.E.C.” the ground controller had no idea what S.T.E.N.D.E.C. meant the message was repeated again with “S.T.E.N.D.E.C.” at the end this was the last transmission ever heard from flight CS59 from Buenos Aires.

The next day the weather broke and a huge comprehensive search was made of the mountains, several aircraft were involved and not a sign of Star dust was found, not a single piece of aluminium or steel or bodies was found.  Almost immediately theories abounded of an alien abduction of the complete aircraft! rumours that one of the passengers was a Nazi on the run were formed.  Another theory was one of the passengers a Mr Casis said Ataiah had a diamond sown into his jacket lining and the plane was brought down to steal the massive diamond!

However the theory that stuck was of an alien abduction a Spanish magazine was published called “S.T.E.N.D.E.C.” giving examples of alien abductions.  What did the fraze mean one theory was “S.T.E.N.D.E.C.” was an R.A.F. war time signal saying the flight was delayed? nothing was ever proven until 1998.

In 1998 a mountain climber reported seeing a Merlin engine laying at the bottom of a glacier, the words Rolls Royce clearly visible on the camshaft covers! the Argentine army volunteered to investigate the wreck site, they were to use the search as an exercise in high altitude climbing for their troops.  The troops had to use mules to carry their equipment due to the high altitude.  When the position of the engine was reached, there plane to see was a damaged Merlin V12 engine.

A wheel and tyre was found the tyre was still inflated! the final proof of flight CS59 came with a very badly damaged piece of fuselage was recovered with the letters “Star d” in yellow paint written on it.  Fragments of bone were found shoes, jackets, ripped trousers.  The bone fragments were D.N.A. checked to the surviving grandchildren of the pilots and passengers.  5 positive matches were found, there was and is no doubt this was the lost Lancastrian “Star dust”.

So how comes the wreck site lay undiscovered for 51 years? a full investigation concluded the Lancastrian was caught in the Jet stream and without a ground fix assumed by dead reckoning they were very close to Santiago airport.  Where as in reality they were in the middle of the Andes mountain range.  They signalled their E.T.A. and began descending and flew into a the “Tupungato” glacier at approximately 200 knots!

The impact was so severe and high speed the Lancastrian buried itself inside the glacier and no doubt due to the impact an avalanche would have buried even the tiny-est piece of wreckage.  The aircraft searching the mountains in 1947 would have had nothing to see!

It is stated over the 50 years since the crash the glacier has started to melt and slide down the mountain and is slowly giving up the wreckage year by year.  Its estimated only 10% of the Lancastrian has been found to date.

As to what S.T.E.N.D.E.C. means no body knows and there is no way of ever knowing now its a mystery.  If the wreckage could have been found at the time would the theorists have come to the abduction theory? I doubt it.