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''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 after wreckage of G-AGWH had been found determined the crash was caused by weather-related factors, but until then speculation had included theories of international intrigue, intercorporate sabotage and even abduction by aliens. 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. == Background == ''Star Dust'' carried six passengers and a crew of five on its final flight. The captain, Reginald Cook, was an experienced Royal Air Force pilot with combat experience during World War II—as were his first officer, Norman Hilton Cook, and second officer, Donald Checklin. Reginald Cook had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The radio operator, Dennis Harmer, also had a record of wartime as well as civilian service. The crew also included Iris Evans, a flight attendant or "Stargirl", who had previously served in the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens"). The passengers were Casis Said Atalah, a Palestinian returning home to Chile from a visit to his dying mother; Jack Gooderham and Harald Pagh, businessmen; Peter Young, an agent for Dunlop; Paul Simpson, a British civil servant; and Marta Limpert, a Chilean resident of German origin who had been stranded in Germany during the war along with her husband. Atalah is said to have had a diamond with him (stitched into the lining of his suit), Limpert was bringing her dead husband's ashes with her, and Simpson was functioning as a King's Messenger with diplomatic documents destined for the British embassy in Santiago. ''Star Dust's'' last flight was the final leg of BSAA Flight CS59, which had started in London on an Avro York named ''Star Mist'' on 29 July 1947, landing in Buenos Aires on 1 August.〔Rayner (2002), pp. 119–122.〕 Marta Limpert was the only one of the six passengers known for certain to have initially boarded ''Star Mist'' in London〔Rayner (2002), p. 119.〕 before changing aircraft in Buenos Aires to continue on to Santiago with the other passengers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Vanished: 1947 Official Accident Report )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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