STENDEC

Even after a decade, nothing is known about the fate of the missing Malaysian passenger Boeing B-777. Despite countless speculations and theories, it is very likely that the real situation will never be known, and if it is ever known, it could only be by chance. As in the case of a long-lost plane about which many stories have been told...

In 1947, a British passenger Avro Lancastrian (for those who are fans of flying machines - an adaptation of the numerous Lancaster bombers, famous for their nightly visits over German cities) of the British South American company on its way from Buenos Aires to Santiago in Chile - disappeared without a trace.

This case became famous among mystery lovers because of the pilot's last message, which was ``STANDEC,'' a word without any particular meaning that was repeated at the request of air traffic control several times. Later, this word was interpreted in various ways, from the pilot's escape to the good old little green aliens who abducted Paradise. The ambiguity of the last communication only added to the mystique of this case. Adding fuel to the mysterious fire were statements by radio amateurs that after the last registered contact with control, they received `SOS/Mayday` signals.

The search yielded no results and the case remained unexplained. For decades, there was speculation about the fate of the plane, until 1998 when the first trace of the plane (part of one of the engines) was found by mountaineers in the Andes. Later, soldiers of the Argentine army found some remains of corpses, so that in 2002, a full 55 years after the event, DNA identification confirmed the identity of the passengers and the fate of the plane that hooked its tip with the lower part of the fuselage and crashed into a glacier.

The heavy snow covered the plane and left the rest of the work to the glacier. The glacier, acting in accordance with its unstable nature, completely covered the plane with ice, simply swallowed it and launched it into the legends...With the subsequent melting of the ice, after half a century - from the frozen mountain bowels the sad reality emerged into the light of day. For descendants and some still living contemporaries of the passengers - the case finally got an epilogue.

It is possible that in the case of the Malaysian plane some kind of freak scenario like the one mentioned above occurred, which would leave the truth in the realm of speculation until a counter-freak event would provide some answers.

(Roger Mortis, 049)