     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, 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 ai
Airliner_accidents_and_incidents_involving_controlled_flight_into_terrain Aviation_accidents_and_incidents_in_1947 Aviation_accidents_and_incidents_in_Argentina British_South_American_Airways_accidents_and_incidents