dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 Star Dust (registration G-AGWH) was a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner which crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes on 2 August 1947, during a flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile. A comprehensive search of a wide area (including what is now known to have been the crash site) was fruitless, and the fate of the aircraft and occupants remained unknown for over 50 years. An investigation in 2000 determined the crash was caused by weather-related factors, but until then speculation had included theories of international intrigue.In the late 1990s, pieces of wreckage from the missing aircraft began to emerge from the glacial ice. It is now assumed that the crew became confused as to their exact location while flying at high altitudes through the (then poorly understood) jet stream. Mistakenly believing they had already cleared the mountain tops, they started their descent when they were in fact still behind cloud-covered peaks, and Star Dust crashed into Mount Tupungato, killing all aboard and burying itself in snow and ice.The last word in Star Dust's final Morse code transmission to Santiago airport, "STENDEC", was received by the airport control tower four minutes prior to its planned landing and repeated twice; it has never been satisfactorily explained.In this sequence we see a BOAC Lancastrian following the ill fated sister ships last known course from Beunos Aires to Santiago, Looking at the terrain it is easy to understand why the wreckage was never spotted until many years later......Thanks for viewing, comments welcome. Link to post Share on other sites
Corsaire31 419 Posted July 8, 2014 Report Share Posted July 8, 2014 Nice set of pics and interesting story 1 Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 Some smashing pics there, Al' - thanks for reminding me of this episode. If you're interested, here's the book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Dust-Falling-Jay-Rayner/dp/0552999083 It's a good bedtime story! Cheers - Dai. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted July 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 Thanks David, recently ordered that book from Play.com. Brand New, £2.40 and free postage! Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 My father explained to me that the lancaster (lancastrian) was an inferior aircraft to the Halifax (halton) which he flew for BOAC after the war to west africa because of its liquid cooled engines. the problem comes when they fly in icing conditions ie high over mountains , the ice being acreeted and also being thrown off the props peens over the radiator fins, thus blocking the passage of air, causing the engines to over heat. If you are over mountains when this happens you cannot descend to get rid of the ice, or to land to repair the radiators, so you crashed . it was exactly this that caused the death of air marshall leigh mallory just after the war in the alps, so quite probably the cause of the andes accident. The Halifax (halton) didnt suffer from this problem because the engines were air cooled. the Halifax could also fly higher I believe so it didnt suffer airframe iceing as did the lanc. as for "stendec" may I suggest it means STarboard ENgine(s) Decellerating ? but i am sure greater minds than mine have puzzled over this for years But thanks for the pics Al you certainly find some great a/c 1 Link to post Share on other sites
dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted July 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 The Halton was indeed a superb aircraft, Link to post Share on other sites
Paul K 22 Posted July 9, 2014 Report Share Posted July 9, 2014 From what I've read, STENDEC wasn't an established radio abbreviation with BSAA, but one of the possible explanations is STandard ENroute DE(s)Cent - Standard Enroute Descent. One of the widely accepted explanations for Star Dust's loss is that the navigator hadn't factored high altitude head winds ( the jet stream ) into his calculations, and so the aircraft wasn't as far along it's intended track as he thought. Consequently, the descent into Santiago inadvertently commenced early, and unfortunately before the aircraft had cleared the Andes mountain range. Standard Enroute Descent - the last message before the descent commenced...it sounds plausible. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 flying in these a/c as I did from London to west africa as a youngster is no doubt the reason why I am mutt and jeff now, sitting next to a bellowing merlin or hercules for all those hours must have some long term effect 1 Link to post Share on other sites
dolf8857 640 Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 Interesting all this, and exellent shots Alan, where you got that beauty from? 1 Link to post Share on other sites
dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted July 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 It's a freeware one I picked up some time ago, I think it's still around. Link to post Share on other sites
Ruzzo 59 Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 That is a beautiful bird. Great shots, Alan. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Paul K 22 Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 There is another Lancastrian, the Plane Design one for FS9, which I think is a more accurate shape: The first picture is of ill-fated Star Dust ( G-AGWH ) herself, and is one of the paint schemes that comes with the package. It works well enough in FSX with replacement prop-disc textures, but so far I haven't got it to work in P3Dv2.2 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Ruzzo 59 Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Paul, could you link that to me? That would be great. Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
Paul K 22 Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Paul, could you link that to me? That would be great. Thanks! There you go, mate. http://www.plane-design.com/ The site's a bit old but still active. Ed Walters, the modeler, is a friend and a bit of a Lancaster expert. Link to post Share on other sites
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