The post-Roswell STENDEC Mystery

On August 2nd, 1947, one month after the Roswell incident, a BSAA civilian airliner carrying 5 crew and 6 passengers was flying from Buenos Aires to Santiago.

The aircraft, named Stardust, was a converted Lancaster bomber. Radio operator Dennis Harmer sent a Morse-code message stating that they will be landing in 4 minutes time. The message was followed by the word ‘STENDEC’. Ground crew at Santiago didn’t understand the meaning of the word and asked Stardust to repeat. The aircraft radioed back, ‘STENDEC…STENDEC’ and abruptly all contact was lost.

A search was made for the lost aircraft but nothing was found – it was as though it had vanished.

In 2000 wreckage and human remains were found at the base of a glacier 50km from where Stardust was last heard from. It seems that the plane was way off coarse and had struck the mountain and become buried in snow and ice.


Stardust

From the official crash report:

1741 hrs. A signal was sent out by the aircraft, E.T.A. Santiago 1745 hrs. ending with "STENDEC."

The 1741 hrs. signal was received by Santiago only 4 minutes before the E.T.A. The Chilean Air Force operator at Santiago states that the reception of the signal was loud and clear but that it was given out very fast. Not understanding the word "STENDEC" he queried it and had the same word repeated by the aircraft twice in succession.

A solution to the word "STENDEC" has not been found.


A version of the story, using a BOAC jetliner(!), found its way into the 1970s comic series UFO Flying Saucers


UFO Flying Saucers No.4 1974

Though the plane’s disappearance has been explained the mystery of the word STENDEC found its way into UFO lore and remains unsolved to this day.

What was Harmer trying to communicate in the brief moments before his death?

I'm sure ATSers can come up with some good solutions- but bear in mind that STENDEC was sent by Morse-code - not verbally...

Here´s some interesting theories as far as the morse aspect of it goes...

www.pbs.org...

Very interesting story although there is not really anything that link this to the UFO subject as far as i can see.

Damn, that's freaky stuff. Another reminder (besides terrorists and high altitude) for me not to set my foot in an airplane. I did a search on Wikipedia (I know, I don't have a lot of fantasy) and this one came up immediately, instead of an explanation for the word that I wanted. Damn... Great find, though. I've never heard of this before.

Originally posted by tomra
Very interesting story although there is not really anything that link this to the UFO subject as far as i can see.

It was a big UFO issue at one time. It featured in Harold Wilkin's Flying Saucers on the Attack/on the Moon 1954, where he speculates that the plane may have been taken by a 'vast interplanetary craft'. Of course we now know that is not the case but it remained an unexplained mystery for 50 years. Also a Spanish UFO magazine used the word SENDEK for its title. So it has been, and remains, very much in the UFO field.

torsion, that certainly makes it ok to discuss it in the UFO context but do you know which pieces of information got it connected to UFO´s in the first place?

Also i tried to find some info on Dennis Harmer´s background without any success. Beeing post war i figured it might be some "war aviation veteran" talk. Still makes little sense to use a word very few outside of the loop would understand tho...