Star Dust (aircraft)

BSAA Star Dust accident

BSAA Lancastrian 3 G-AGWH painted as Stardust
Accident summary
Date	2 August 1947
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to severe weather conditions
Site	Mount Tupungato, Argentina 33°22′15″S 69°45′40″W / 33.37083°S 69.76111°W / -33.37083; -69.76111Coordinates: 33°22′15″S 69°45′40″W / 33.37083°S 69.76111°W / -33.37083; -69.76111
Passengers	6
Crew	5
Fatalities	11 (all)
Aircraft type	Avro Lancastrian
Operator	British South American Airways
Registration	G-AGWH
Flight origin	Morón Airport and Air Base (MOR/SADM) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Destination	Los Cerrillos Airport (ULC/SCTI) Santiago, Chile

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 before its planned landing and repeated twice; it has never been satisfactorily explained.

The aircraft, an Avro 691 Lancastrian 3, was built as constructor's number 1280 for the Ministry of Supply to carry 13 passengers, and first flew on 27 November 1945. Its civil certificate of airworthiness (CofA) number 7282 was issued on 1 January 1946. It was delivered to BSAA on 12 January 1946, was registered on 16 January as G-AGWH and given the individual aircraft name "Star Dust".