- 6/17/2025
Tells the story of the search for the Avro Lancastrian airliner, Star Dust, that crashed in the Andes on its way to Santiago, Chile. BBC / WGBH co-production.[20] Broadcast in 2000 as BBC Horizon episode
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00:00In 1998, two mountaineers climbing one of the highest and most forbidding peaks in the
00:15South American Andes, Mount Tupangato, made a startling discovery.
00:25On the rocky slopes of the 21,000-foot volcano, amidst scattered debris, lay an old Rolls-Royce
00:32engine.
00:37One climber posing for a snapshot joked, how could anyone have gotten a car up here?
00:44But the engine clearly belonged to a plane.
00:49Behind it were scattered clues of a grim disaster, twisted metal wreckage, a mummified human hand,
00:59and tattered scraps of clothing.
01:04This discovery would reignite the quest to solve one of aviation's most enduring mysteries,
01:10how a passenger plane that disappeared 53 years ago had vanished into thin air.
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02:55An kurd
02:56August 2, 1947, a British Lancastrian airliner called Stardust took off on a routine passenger
03:04flight across South America.
03:09The flight was to be anything but routine.
03:22The scheduled British South American Airways flight should have taken under four hours
03:28to travel from Buenos Aires, in Argentina, to the Chilean capital, Santiago, across the
03:33Andes Mountains.
03:40At the controls was a highly experienced pilot with a navigator and three other crew members.
03:49Some of the six passengers on board seem to have stepped straight out of an Agatha Christie
03:54novel.
03:56Among them, a Palestinian businessman with a large diamond sewn into the lining of his
04:01jacket, a German émigré returning to Chile with the ashes of her dead husband, and a messenger
04:09from the British King, carrying confidential diplomatic correspondence.
04:15But no one on board was ever to reach their destination.
04:28Early in the journey, regular radio messages confirmed the plane was apparently on course.
04:38For the last 45 minutes, Stardust should have crossed the Andes from Mendoza on the so-called
04:43Central Route, close to Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, before turning south
04:50for Santiago.
04:57In the post-World War II era, almost no other plane was better suited for the Andes crossing
05:03than a Lancastrian.
05:06Converted from the Royal Air Force's legendary Lancaster bomber, it could fly well above the
05:11tallest peaks in South America.
05:15Just before Stardust was due in Santiago, the plane contacted air traffic control, confirming
05:23it was due to arrive in just four minutes.
05:39Stardust should have been just a few miles from touchdown in Santiago.
05:42Then, the plane sent a mysterious morse code message, Stendek.
05:55Baffled by the unintelligible word, the radio operator in Santiago asked for clarification.
06:05The same word, Stendek, was repeated again twice.
06:12After that, nothing more was heard from the plane.
06:24Stardust seemed to have vanished.
06:28It's disappearance gave rise to what has become one of the great aviation mysteries.
06:41When the plane failed to arrive, the search began.
06:47But there was no sign of Stardust around Santiago, even though it had apparently been close to landing
06:53there when it disappeared.
06:55So the search spread out to cover the Andes Mountains.
07:02Captain Frank Taylor was one of British South American senior pilots at the time.
07:08He flew out from Britain to help look for the plane.
07:13We did a search, well, over nine hours, actually.
07:16And what we did was to go to the Central Pass and really scan that backwards and forth at high altitude.
07:25As reports came in of faint radio messages being picked up from the missing plane, the search intensified.
07:36Planes crisscrossed a wider and wider area, looking for any signs of wreckage.
07:49We went north to San Juan and we went south as well.
07:53And we really had a very thorough look, but we found nothing.
08:02Both Argentina and Chile sent troops to hunt for the missing plane.
08:08When they returned empty-handed, the rumors began.
08:13There were rumors of sabotage.
08:16The theory was compounded when two more planes of the same airline disappeared within months of each other.
08:25There were also rumors about the king's messenger.
08:29It was a time of tension between Britain and Argentina, which led to speculation that the plane had been blown up to stop vital documents reaching Santiago.
08:41So inexplicable and complete was Stardust's disappearance, that even alien abduction was suggested.
08:50The plane's final unexplained message, Stendek, eventually inspired the name of a cult UFO magazine.
09:00Hazel North was just a child when her uncle, Stardust's captain, Reginald Cook, disappeared.
09:10We got together as a family and wondered what had happened, why it was that the plane couldn't be found, why there wasn't any wreckage.
09:19And there was no body. And I think when you can see a body, you can come to terms with it, you can begin to grasp the reality of it.
09:29But we could never do that. We sat around and asked questions for years, basically, the same questions that there were no answers for.
09:38Ruth, Stacey and Mary have spent a lifetime in the shadow of the Stardust tragedy.
09:47Their uncle, Peter Young, was one of the missing passengers.
09:51We didn't know he died, because nobody knew what happened to the plane, just that the plane had vanished.
09:56And indeed, all these years, nobody's known what happened to the plane.
10:01Grandmother went on believing that he was still alive until she died, which must have been about ten years later.
10:09She always said, I think there'd been a sort of, that thing of Shangri-La and that you could be up in the mountains and never found.
10:19For more than 53 years, the legend of Stardust's disappearance continued to grow.
10:27A mystery, it remained in my mind for the last half a century.
10:33In fact, I think I can safely say that I would have given up hope of ever hearing that they'd found the aircraft.
10:40It looked as if Stardust had disappeared forever.
10:46Then, in 1998, a chance discovery at last reopened the case of the plane that had vanished.
11:02An old Rolls-Royce engine was discovered high in the Andes Mountains.
11:09It had appeared out of nowhere, and it belonged to Stardust.
11:16Nearby were human remains.
11:21The sudden reappearance of a piece of Stardust only increased the mystery surrounding the plane.
11:29The engine had been found on a glacier below one of the biggest mountains in the Andes, Mount Tupangato.
11:38It was 50 miles from Santiago, where Stardust had apparently been close to landing before it disappeared.
11:46This whole area had been systematically searched when Stardust vanished in 1947.
11:52It had been visited since by mountaineers, who'd found nothing.
11:56But now, pieces of Stardust had suddenly reappeared.
12:01The discovery led to a storm of publicity.
12:08In February, the Argentine army called a press conference.
12:15Officials announced they were mounting an expedition into the Andes to retrieve and analyze the newly found wreckage.
12:26A team of air crash investigators were called in to reopen the Stardust case.
12:37Dr. Carlos Bauza was the crash investigator chosen to lead the army's attempt to reach the accident site.
12:43When the wreckage of the plane was found, and it was confirmed that it was a Stardust, the reaction in Argentina, and probably all around the world, was one of amazement.
13:04I, too, was amazed. The mere fact that it had appeared more than half a century after it had vanished lent it a great aura of misery.
13:17How and why did it happen? All those in the world of aviation were surprised that it could have been found.
13:25The Argentine army is preparing equipment and supplies for 100 soldiers to survive for 10 days in the mountains.
13:52The trucks roll out at dawn.
14:07Their mission is to search for any clues that can shed light on what happened to Stardust.
14:13Why a plane thought lost forever had suddenly reappeared 53 years later.
14:21They also planned to bring back human remains in the hope they can be identified and return to their families.
14:28In the distance, the first glimpse of their destination, Mount Tupangato, 50 miles and five days away.
14:41They're heading toward the heart of the Andes, the second highest range of mountains in the world.
14:53After a day, they've left the foothills behind.
15:08The trucks grind up high into the mountains.
15:14There are no bridges, but they still have to cross several icy rivers.
15:23They've brought 100 mules, which will take over from the trucks when the road runs up.
15:28After two days, the mules take on their burden.
15:45They're entering a hostile world of rock and ice.
15:53And the air is getting thinner.
15:54Eventually, even the mules find the going tough.
16:08And things begin to go wrong.
16:10It's been a very hard day.
16:27Four or five mules have been hurt.
16:29Some quite seriously.
16:31The path was very, very rough.
16:33We had to create several new paths.
16:36And the mules found it very difficult.
16:43After three days, they're in the shadow of Mount Tupangato.
16:49The terrain has become too rough even for the mules.
16:52The final march to the glacier will have to be on foot.
17:07It's the fourth day.
17:11The expedition is now above 13,000 feet, higher than most mountains in the Alps.
17:21Below Mount Tupangato is the Tupangato glacier.
17:24Its lower section is covered in rock that has fallen from the surrounding mountains.
17:30The ice beneath is invisible.
17:34Somewhere on this rock-strewn glacier lies the key to the stardust mystery.
17:39The wreckage that the mountaineers found is now only a few hours away.
17:51But with light fading and snow in the air, the expedition sets up camp for the night.
17:59Because supplies are limited, they only have two days to find the wreckage and investigate the crash.
18:05Dawn on the fifth day.
18:27It's minus eight degrees.
18:28They've reached the glacier.
18:29And the hunt for stardust can begin.
18:30The plan is to comb the entire area to find as many pieces of the plane as possible.
18:34This is the whole area of the wreckage.
18:35The plane wreckage.
18:36And we're going to put two men to the left, two men to the right, and one men to the right,
18:37and one men to the left.
18:38each five meters here.
18:39And then going to the other side, and the plane wreckage.
18:41And the plane wreckage, and we're going to put two men to the left, two men to the right,
18:45and one man each five meters here.
18:46entire area to find as many pieces of the plane as possible this is the whole area of the wreckage
18:58and we're going to put two men to the left two men to the right and one man each five meters here
19:06and then going climbing all the sound founding the wreckage after two hours of walking on the
19:19rock-covered glacier no one finds any trace of the plane then their luck changes
19:27over there the first the first wreckage of the plane on that white spot over there with a red rock
19:41two fingers to the right
19:57the right thing it means stardust stardust stardust the beginning of the world
20:19so this is where stardust met its end now the investigation into the crash can begin
20:33the team needs to discover why the plane disappeared so many years ago
20:38only to suddenly reappear on a glacier 50 miles off course to learn more carlos needs to get an
20:46impression of the pattern of the wreckage over the whole glacier
20:56analyzing the wreckage distribution is crucial because different types of crashes leave very
21:02different signatures on the ground for example a bomb would spread the wreckage over a huge area
21:09as the plane broke up in midair and the wind carried debris over many square miles
21:14miles but if the plane had lost control and dove straight into the glacier then the wreckage would
21:21be concentrated in a very small area carlos uses gps the global positioning system
21:29to log the position of each piece of debris as it's found so that the spread of the wreckage can be
21:35accurately reconstructed
21:46the first pieces of the plane have been found on one side of the rock covered section of the tupangato glacier
21:51the patrol fans out searching for more
22:07five hours later they've located several more shattered pieces of metal strewn across the glacier
22:13but so far they've found surprisingly little of the huge plane
22:27then a dramatic breakthrough
22:31the lancastrians two massive main wheels are discovered just a few meters apart
22:36after more than 50 years one is still fully inflated the main wheels are in his normal position
22:51the pilot don't put in the landing position the the wheels if the pilot was preparing for a crash landing
23:00because of engine failure for example he might have lowered the wheels into the landing position
23:06but these wheels are intact
23:13it means they were retracted in their normal flying position at the time of the accident
23:21if they had been lowered for a crash landing they would have been damaged in the impact
23:25they would have been damaged in their normal flying position
23:29carlos sets off to try and find more clues
23:33he wants to find the engine discovered earlier in the year that triggered the expedition
23:45that's a great day for pictures
24:15The Lancastrian's Rolls-Royce engine had clearly been battered by the crash impact.
24:21But Carlos wants to know if engine failure caused the accident.
24:28To figure this out, he needs to locate the engine's propeller.
24:35The propeller can give vital clues about the performance of the engine at the time of the crash.
24:41If Stardust's engines were working normally, the propellers would have been turning at the moment of impact and would show a particular type of damage.
24:55This modern propeller shows the kind of damage that occurs if an engine crashes when it's working properly.
25:03If the propellers are rotating at high speed when they hit the ground, the tips will be scarred and bent back.
25:11Carlos finds the propeller nearby.
25:27It only takes him a moment to see it is extremely scarred and bent back.
25:31You see the point of the propeller?
25:37This one and this one?
25:39The propeller was in movement when the plane crashed.
25:44It means this engine was working normally.
25:47Yet, Stardust had four engines, and mysteriously, there's still no sign of the other three.
25:59But nothing discovered so far suggests that engine failure caused the crash.
26:04More and more fragmented pieces of the plane are found across the glacier.
26:14The GPS logging is revealing a crash site concentrated in an area of about one square mile on the lower section of the glacier.
26:29Despite searching well outside this zone, there's no sign of any more debris.
26:36This crash site is too small for a bomb.
26:39But one thing is becoming obvious.
26:45Every piece of wreckage is crushed and crumpled.
26:48The signs of a massive high-speed impact.
26:56This pattern of debris is exactly what would be expected if the plane flew straight into the glacier.
27:02But there appears to be no reason for Stardust to have crashed.
27:16The picture so far is of a plane apparently flying Norma right up to the final moment.
27:22No explosion and no engine failure.
27:24The discoveries so far have only deepened the mystery of what happened to Stardust.
27:42Then, the team find the first evidence of the people who lost their lives.
27:47It's a woman's ship.
28:07It's a man's ship.
28:37The soldiers gathered the scattered remains of several bodies.
28:48None is recognizable.
28:53The picture that is emerging is one of an exceptionally violent collision.
28:57It seems clear that the people on board Stardust died at the same instant the plane crashed.
29:10I suppose by the speed that the airplane crashes here, nobody suffers any pain.
29:27Carlos and the Army team have now thoroughly searched the glacier.
29:34They've mapped all the wreckage there is, but they are nowhere close to solving the case.
29:42Ninety percent of the plane is still missing.
29:45There's still no evidence to explain why Stardust crashed 50 miles from the airport, from which it was supposedly only minutes away.
30:05Nor are there any clues as to why the plane disappeared, only to reappear on the glacier 53 years later.
30:12Carlos will need help if he is to piece together the puzzle any further.
30:33With the work on the glacier finished, there's an impromptu service to remember the dead.
30:38They've gathered the remains of what they believe to be four of the eleven people on board.
30:45No one knows which of the passengers they've found.
30:47They've found.
31:00Ahead lies the difficult task of identifying the human remains and reuniting them with the families who have waited so long.
31:07I feel we owe him to do everything we can to make sure that there's a proper burial and a proper memorial and everything.
31:22I think it would be wonderful if Reginald was identified.
31:37We all want him home. He's been away for 53 years.
31:41And we want this tragedy over.
31:47Uno.
31:49Saludo.
31:50Dos.
31:51Dpointing.
31:52Gutenberg.
31:56Returning the remains found on Tupangato to their surviving relatives will not be easy.
32:04not be easy.
32:11In Buenos Aires, the Forensic Service begins its grim task of trying to identify the mangled
32:16body parts.
32:19They are quickly able to determine that two female hip bones are from the left side of
32:27the body and come from different individuals.
32:34Since there were only two women on board, they must belong to the British South American
32:38airline stewardess, Iris Evans, and the German émigré, Marta Limpert.
32:45But that's as far as the forensic examination can go.
32:51With no facial features or even dental records, the only chance to investigate the rest of
32:56the remains is through DNA profiling.
33:04Others of all those who were lost in the crash have been asked to give blood.
33:11The goal is to try and match their DNA profiles to those created from the stardust remains.
33:22The problem is that after 53 years, the DNA retrieved from the crash site has become seriously degraded.
33:32Because only tiny fragments still exist, the DNA strands will have to be amplified millions
33:37of times.
33:42Through this method, seven distinct genetic profiles are found in addition to the two women on board.
33:50The tests to link these profiles to the surviving relatives are still ongoing.
33:56It is uncertain who, if any, of those on board Stardust will be identified.
34:06The crash investigators now face the task of making sense of what has proved to be a completely
34:11baffling accident.
34:16And the final mysteries remain.
34:20No one knows why Stardust, apparently flying normally, flew straight into a glacier 50 miles
34:26off course.
34:27And just as strange, why it disappeared only to suddenly reappear 53 years later.
34:39Carlos wonders whether the glacier itself could hold the key to the stardust mystery.
34:54He has met up with his colleague, air crash investigator Carlos Sorini, in the city of Mendoza.
35:06They've arranged to meet an expert on glaciers, Dr. Juan Carlos Leiva.
35:16We found wreckage of the aircraft over an area of more than one square kilometer.
35:26After reviewing the information and the geography of the Tupangato glacier, Dr. Leiva confronts
35:31them with a startling conclusion.
35:35He tells them the wreckage isn't at the actual crash site at all.
35:40There's a crucial fact to consider.
35:44Glaciers move.
35:50Glaciers are enormous rivers of ice.
35:54Once they reach a critical mass, about 18 meters thick, they become so heavy, they travel slowly
35:59downhill, under the influence of gravity.
36:06There's an important implication.
36:09Fifty-three years ago, Stardust crashed not where the wreckage is lying today, but higher
36:14up on the glacier.
36:19It could well have crashed right underneath the sheer snow-covered east face of Mount Tupangato.
36:30This reassessment of where Stardust crashed might hold the key to explaining why the plane
36:35wasn't found, despite the massive search in 1947.
36:43I think the impact of the aircraft against the mountain produced a vibration that caused
36:51an avalanche which covered the wreckage in snow.
36:55If Carlos is right, then within seconds, the avalanche would have buried Stardust, but that
37:06was just the beginning.
37:10After the avalanche, the glacier itself would have slowly swallowed the plane.
37:22The ice in the upper part of the glacier incorporates the wreckage, which must have been stuck in
37:28the ice and then moved right down.
37:35Year by year, layers of snowfall would have buried the wreckage deeper and deeper.
37:46Gradually Stardust would have become part of the glacier itself, traveling slowly downhill,
37:52not on the surface of the ice, but deep inside it.
37:58It lay hidden inside the glacier for another 53 years.
38:07It's not the first time a plane has been swallowed by a glacier.
38:15In Greenland, this Second World War fighter was recently discovered 250 feet beneath an ice
38:21sheet.
38:22It had been abandoned with five other planes on the surface of the ice in 1942.
38:35Over the years, they were buried in snow.
38:39The snow hardened into ice.
38:43Plains and glacier became one.
38:48But there's one crucial difference.
38:51The Greenland Plains were still buried deep inside the ice when they were found.
38:57Yet Stardust had reappeared on the surface of the Tupangato glacier.
39:05Dr. Leiva believes he can explain why Stardust disappeared without a trace, only to reappear
39:11half a century later.
39:13If it falls here, the ice will transport it to the top of the Tupangato glacier.
39:17It's going to take it.
39:18It's going to take it.
39:19It's going to take it.
39:21The crucial clue comes from the lower rock-covered section of the Tupangato glacier.
39:31Stardust crashed in the upper area where the plane was buried and became part of the glacier.
39:37Over the years, the wreckage traveled downhill inside the ice until it reached the lower rock-covered section.
39:46Here at the lower altitude, it's warmer and the glacier started to melt.
39:54Everything trapped inside the ice, rocks or debris from the crash, gradually melted out onto the
40:00surface.
40:05Ninety percent of the plane is still entombed in the ice.
40:09But if the theory is right, it too will reappear on the surface over the next few years.
40:23The glacier finally explains why Stardust had disappeared for so long.
40:36But there were still pieces of the puzzle that remained unsolved.
40:42There was no explanation for why Stardust had crashed when there was apparently nothing
40:46wrong with the plane.
40:51The investigators knew from the wreckage that the crash was a high-energy impact.
40:57The plane was apparently flying normally.
41:03And they had one other clue.
41:07The plane had crashed 50 miles away from Santiago, even though the crew thought they were close
41:13to landing.
41:15So they focused on one key factor that could have caused the accident, navigational error.
41:22Maybe they had not chosen the central route.
41:25Today, sophisticated navigation systems mean it's almost impossible for an airline crew
41:31not to know where they are every second they're in the air.
41:37But 53 years ago, it was a different story.
41:41You've got to realize that in those days, things were pretty primitive in certain parts
41:46of the world.
41:47We didn't have radio navigation lights, which would tell us precisely where we were.
41:53The fact of the matter was that you started off on a set heading on the basis of the forecast
41:59winds and whatever height you selected.
42:02And from then on, you would just hope that you might get a visual checkpoint somewhere.
42:07You might be able to see Econcagra sticking up.
42:09You might be able to see Topangata.
42:12But if you couldn't, you couldn't guarantee that you were going precisely where you thought
42:17you were on an estimated basis.
42:19That was the problem.
42:22But even allowing for the lack of modern navigation aids, Stardust's highly experienced crew should
42:28not have been 50 miles off course.
42:31There had to be a reason for such a massive navigational error.
42:40The investigators knew from the weather reports at the time of the crash that conditions were
42:45bad over the mountains, and Stardust's crew had also known about the bad weather.
42:53So to avoid the advancing snowstorms, they had radioed their intention to climb to 24,000
42:58feet above the clouds and the mountains.
43:04On its own, bad weather didn't explain the crash, because the Lancastrians' ability to fly
43:09high should have guaranteed safety.
43:15The investigators believe that once Stardust was at 24,000 feet, the crew decided to fly
43:21in a straight line to Santiago.
43:26Although they didn't know it, by trying to fly over the tops of the mountains, they were
43:31sealing their fate.
43:34They were about to encounter an invisible meteorological phenomenon, which they knew nothing
43:39about.
43:41The jet stream.
43:46This powerful high-altitude wind only develops above the normal weather systems.
43:53It can reach speeds upwards of 300 miles an hour.
44:00But in 1947, the jet stream was still largely unknown, especially in South America, because
44:07very few planes ever flew high enough to encounter these upper-atmosphere winds.
44:15Stardust was the exception.
44:18It could fly this high.
44:24The investigators realized that a head-on encounter with the invisible wind would have dramatically
44:29slowed Stardust down without the crew knowing it.
44:35This could be the key to their huge navigational error.
44:38Because we have the weather charts today, and because of the way the jet stream develops, we can say that
44:48on the day of the crash, conditions were ideal for the jet stream to occur.
44:53But the flight crew had absolutely no knowledge of it at all.
44:58Because in those days, little was known about this type of phenomenon.
45:02At the same time, there were no references to this type of wind phenomenon.
45:12An analysis of the old weather charts showed that on the day of the crash, Stardust was flying
45:17straight into the jet stream.
45:22Moreover, the clouds meant that the crew was unable to see the ground, which would tell them
45:27where they were.
45:31They had no way of knowing the jet stream was slowing them down, destroying all their navigational
45:37calculations.
45:50Using their modern-day knowledge of the jet stream, the investigating team have now reconstructed
45:55the last 45 minutes of Stardust's doomed flight.
46:02At 5 p.m. on August 2, 1947, Stardust radioed its position near to the city of Mendoza.
46:14The crew could still see the ground, but ahead, the mountains were covered in clouds.
46:24Stardust told air traffic control that it intended to climb to 24,000 feet, avoiding the bad weather.
46:32From now onwards, the ground would be invisible.
46:38As Stardust climbed, it began to enter the jet stream and slow down dramatically.
46:43But the crew had no knowledge of this.
46:46They believed that they were making much faster progress.
46:50At 24,000 feet, Stardust was flying almost directly into the jet stream's winds, blowing close
46:59100 miles an hour.
47:06The jet stream's effect was devastating.
47:11At 5.33 p.m., the crew was convinced they were crossing the mountains into Chile.
47:18But they weren't.
47:20They radioed their time of arrival as 5.45 p.m.
47:26In fact, the plane was still on the wrong side of the mountains.
47:29There is no doubt that according to their calculations, they clearly thought that they were on the other side of the mountains.
47:52Confident the Andes were well behind them, Reginald Cook began the descent, sure that when Stardust emerged from the clouds, it would be above Santiago Airport.
48:07In fact, they were descending straight towards Mount Tubangato, which was still invisible in the clouds ahead.
48:18Disaster was seconds away.
48:24I think that in the final minutes of the flight, the pilot was quite sure of what he was doing and felt quite relaxed.
48:32The passengers would never, at any moment, have realized what was happening.
48:37I don't think it was a bad way to die because you go from feeling relaxed to suddenly not feeling anything.
48:44After the devastating crash, the plane was buried within seconds.
49:07It vanished from sight.
49:11Over time, the wreckage was swallowed by the glacier.
49:18For the next 53 years, it traveled down towards the glacier's zone of melting.
49:34Now, finally, it is beginning to reemerge.
49:41The mystery of what happened to Stardust is almost solved.
49:49But one small part of the legend still remains.
49:57A final riddle, which science has been unable to solve.
50:02Stendek.
50:04Stardust's last, apparently unintelligible radio message.
50:08What does it really mean?
50:11To send accurate Morse code, the operator has to be able to hear an audible signal.
50:23Yet, as Stardust descended into a turbulent storm, the noise or even static electricity trapped in the clouds above the mountains may have caused audio problems.
50:33But if the Morse code signal had become scrambled, or was the result of a typographical error, why was it transmitted and received the same way three times?
50:48If Stendek wasn't the result of an unclear signal, could the same arrangements of dots and dashes produce a different message?
51:00In 1948, a wireless operator noted that by slightly changing the spacing between the symbols for Stendek, one gets ETA late, a common message.
51:13Only the dot is missing, an easy mistake to make.
51:20Other Morse code experts have pointed out that the letters EC have the same number of dots and dashes as the letters AR, the standard signal for end of message.
51:34But that still leaves the first part of the word undeciphered.
51:41Since Stendek is meaningless in almost every language, could it possibly be an abbreviation, as one historian has suggested, indicating the plane's descent?
51:53Others argue this is not a standard use of Morse code.
52:00We have consulted everyone who flew these planes, and even appealed through the British press, to see if any pilots who flew this aircraft could explain whether Stendek was a code word, or something to do with weather conditions, or give us any information at all.
52:19We couldn't find the answer.
52:22We couldn't find the answer.
52:23I think that in the end, Stendek is going to be the final unsolved mystery in the story of Stardust.
52:31There is one legend that the discovery of Stardust can put to rest.
52:45There was no alien abduction by UFOs from other worlds.
52:52The invisible force blowing the plane off course was an earthly phenomenon, the jet stream.
53:00Unfamiliar with its strength, Stardust's crew made their tragic error.
53:16Want to try your hand at solving the Stendek mystery?
53:19On NOVA's website, review the evidence, examine Morse code, and send in your theory at pbs.org or America Online keyword, PBS.
53:31Educators can order this or any other NOVA program for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
53:55Call WGBH Boston Video at 1-800-255-9424.
54:03Next time on NOVA.
54:05To the Nazis, it was the ultimate escape-proof prison.
54:09For its inmates, it became the ultimate challenge.
54:12In the end, they saw only one way out.
54:15The sky.
54:17Nazi prison escape.
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56:32掉ing TV.
56:33never.
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56:35Well, don't live in a safe world, don't live in a safe world.
56:37LIxD1D3
56:40Too many people we can save.
56:41Every game we can save.
56:42I won the same weather for sure.
56:43I won the same.
56:44Don't live in a safe world.
56:45Rosie need a place.
56:46Don't live in a safe world, don't live in a safe world .
56:49Now, don't live in a safe world.
56:51You're using ISIS.
56:52And ven用 energetically…
56:53You're using ISIS.
56:54We're using ISIS.
56:55And I won the same way we can save us sometimes as our channel for Virt BR dam.
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