Global Information1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident information
 BSAA Lancastrian 3 G-AGWH painted as Star Dust | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2 August 1947 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Mount Tupungato, Argentina 33°22′15″S 69°45′40″W / 33.37083°S 69.76111°W |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Avro Lancastrian |
| Operator | British South American Airways |
| Registration | G-AGWH |
| Flight origin | Morón Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Destination | Los Cerrillos Airport, Santiago, Chile |
| Occupants | 11 |
| Passengers | 6 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 11 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 2 August 1947, Star Dust, a British South American Airways (BSAA) Avro Lancastrian airliner on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes. An extensive search operation failed to locate the wreckage, despite covering the area of the crash site. The fate of the aircraft and its occupants remained unknown for over fifty years, giving rise to various conspiracy theories about its disappearance.
In the late 1990s, pieces of wreckage from the missing aircraft began to emerge from the glacial ice. It is now believed 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. Star Dust crashed into Mount Tupungato, killing all aboard and burying itself in snow and ice.[1][2]
The last word in Star Dust's final Morse code transmission to Santiago airport, "STENDEC", was received by the airport control tower four minutes before its planned landing and repeated twice; it has never been satisfactorily explained.
- ^ "Crash pilot cleared 50 years on". The Guardian. 7 July 2000. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
- ^ "Pilot finally cleared over mystery of 1947 mountain plane disaster". The Birmingham Post. 8 July 2000. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2011.