Solution to the Evening Star hunt:
This is the story of a BSAA (British South American Airways) Avro Lancastrian plane called STAR DUST. On August 2nd 1947, it disappeared over the Andes mountains 5 minutes before it was supposed to land at the Los Cerillos Airport in Santiago, Chile. The last Morse Code message received from the plane has remained a mystery, and the fate of the plane and the people aboard remained unknown until the 1990's when the wreckage was discovered by some hikers on the Mount Tupungato Glacier.
Although the wreckage was found over 50 years after the plane's disappearance, the final Morse Code message remains a mystery.
The full message sent was: 'ETA SANTIAGO 17:45 HRS STENDEC'
This message was repeated 3 times before the tower lost contact with the plane
There have been multiple theories as to what was was meant by STENDEC. Was the Morse Code entered incorrectly? Was it some obscure code? The operator was experienced and it seems unlikely he made the same mistake three times in a row.
My hunt, explained:The pieces of tape all have Morse Code for the words shown, with either the same dot-dash pattern, or very similar patterns (and all without spacing):
Three of them represent STENDEC, the number of times the word was repeated.
DESCENT is an anagram of STENDEC, and one of the theories about what was intended
ETA LATE is another theory about what was intended
VALP, the call sign for the Valparaiso airport, just 110 miles from Santiago is another theory about what was meant.
Some felt the radio operator meant to write STAR DUST, as the Morse Code for that is very close to STENDEC.
The candle is SCENTED, another anagram of STENDEC
The series of "words" are all possible letter combinations using the same dot-dash pattern as STENDEC. They are not anagrams or cryptograms. I pulled them from a very long list of options on dcode (a list that includes STENDEC).
IAENTVEN, EFTRITR, VENDAR and STECUR all use the same dot-dash pattern as STENDEC, each with different spacing.
TGTENMKA, ORYCT and MNTROEK are what you get if the operator confused the dots with dashes and got it 'backwards'.
The first letters of these "words" anagram to IT MOVES or MOVES IT, which suggest moving the space between dots and dashes to get the correct letters.
The newspaper itself contains the article about the plane crash. It is in the lower left of the front page with the headline: REPORT OF WRECK SPURS ANDES SEARCH FOR PLANE.
In the upper left corner is an image of the Milky Way, or STAR DUST, the name of the plane.
The viola with roses on it is a rebus, meaning ROSY VIOLA. This is an anagram of OLLS ROYCE, which is what is what can be seen on the remains of the ROLLS ROYCE engine. If you find the articles and pictures of the wreckage, you can see this engine.
The title of the hunt, Evening Star is the name of the newspaper, and also a hint to Stardust accident which happened in the evening, around 5 pm.
A little more about the story:
The plane was a BSAA Avro Lancastrian with the call letters G-AGWH (1st letter of each line of my "Gee-" clue), which was converted for passenger use from a British bomber used in WWII. There were 5 crew and 6 passengers aboard.
STENDEC in Morse Code = ... /- /. / -. / -.. / . / -.-. Another theory (and what the Morse code on the tape could have read) was:
Change the spacing, and we get: ... /-.-. /- /.. /.- / .-.
This spells SCTI AR.
SCTI was the old ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) abbreviation for Los Cerrillos airport, Santiago, where they were headed. AR meant 'end of transmission'.
The message came through as: ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS STENDEC.
Correcting the spacing we can get: ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS SCTI AR, or:
"Estimated Time of Arrival Santiago 17.45 Hours, Los Cerillos Airport Santiago. End of transmission."
What do you think the radio operator intended to say?!
The crew and passenger list of the Star Dust reads like an Agatha Christy mystery and raised many conspiracy theories in the post-WWII era:
The crew:
1. Reginald Cook, captain, was a WWII RAF pilot
2. Norman Hilton Cook, 1st officer. Served in WWII
3. Donald Checklin, 2nd officer. Served in the war
4. Dennis Harmer, radio operator, had both a wartime and civilian service record.
5. Iris Evans, flight attendant, served in WWII in the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens") as a chief petty officer.
The passengers:
1. Casis Said Atalah, a Palestinian returning to Chile after visiting his dying mother. Rumors spread that he had a diamond stitched into the lining of his clothes.
2 & 3. Jack Gooderham & Harald Pagh, two British businessmen – or spies?!
4. Peter Young, an agent for Dunlop tire company.
5. Paul Simpson, a British "King’s Messenger" who was carrying diplomatic documents to the British Embassy in Santiago.
6.. Marta Limpert, a German-born Chilean resident who was stranded in Germany with her husband during the war. She had her dead husband's ashes with her.
Theories of the time:
1. Sabotage, reinforced by the later disappearance of two other BSAA airplanes.
2. The Star Dust was blown up to destroy the documents carried by the King's Messenger.
3. The Star Dust was taken or destroyed by a UFO. This idea was fueled by the mysterious STENDEC message. The discovery of the wreckage discredited this theory.
I hope you had fun researching this hunt and making discoveries along the way!