Star Tiger (registration G-AHNP) was a passenger plane made by Avro Tudor. It was owned and operated by British South American Airways (BSAA). The plane vanished without being found over the Atlantic Ocean during a flight from Santa Maria in the Azores to Bermuda on January 30, 1948, in the early morning. The disappearance of Star Tiger, along with the loss of another BSAA Avro Tudor plane called Star Ariel in 1949, has never been solved. These events contributed to the development of the Bermuda Triangle legend.
Background
British South American Airways (BSAA) was an airline started by pilots who fought in World War II. Its goal was to provide travel and trade services on South American routes that had not been used before. The airline was first called British Latin American Air Lines (BLAIR) and was separated from the British Overseas Airways Corporation to handle flights across the South Atlantic. BSAA began flying across the Atlantic in March 1946, with its first flight operated by a BSAA Avro Lancastrian plane departing from London's Heathrow Airport. The airline used many planes made by Avro, including Yorks, Lancastrians, and Tudors. It flew to Bermuda, the West Indies, and the western coast of South America.
Flight
Star Tiger was one of three improved versions of the Avro Tudor, called Tudor IV. It completed 11 flights across the Atlantic Ocean, totaling 575 hours of flying time, since its first test flight on November 4, 1947.
On the morning of January 28, 1948, the crew and passengers boarded Star Tiger in Lisbon. However, the pilot, Captain Brian W. McMillan, said the left inner engine needed repairs, so the group had to return to the airport. The aircraft took off 2 and a half hours later and was supposed to make a 75-minute stop in Santa Maria, Azores, to refuel. But because the weather was very poor, Captain McMillan decided to wait until the next day.
Among the passengers, 16 were British, 2 were Mexican, 2 were Czech, 1 was Swiss, and 4 had no country listed. Seven passengers were traveling to Bermuda, 12 to Kingston, Jamaica, and six to Havana, Cuba.
The next day, January 29, Star Tiger took off toward Bermuda despite strong winds. Captain McMillan planned to fly at no more than 2,000 feet (610 meters) to avoid the worst winds. An Avro Lancastrian, operated by BSAA and piloted by Frank Griffin, took off an hour earlier. Griffin agreed to send weather updates to Star Tiger.
Star Tiger took off at 3:34 p.m. Soon after, heavy rain and strong winds hit the plane. At first, it was about 200 miles (320 kilometers) behind the Lancastrian, but Captain McMillan gradually closed the distance. Both planes stayed in radio contact with each other and with Bermuda. David Colby DFC, the second pilot on Star Tiger, was also a highly experienced pilot and former RAF Pathfinder Force leader.
By 1:26 a.m. on January 30, after 10 hours in the air, Star Tiger was only 150 miles (240 kilometers) behind the Lancastrian. The Lancastrian’s navigator used the stars to find their position and discovered the winds had pushed the plane 60 miles (100 kilometers) off course in the previous hour. At this point, Star Tiger had passed a point where it could no longer change course to go to Newfoundland and was committed to heading to Bermuda.
Around 2:00 a.m., Cyril Ellison, Star Tiger’s navigator, located the plane’s position and found they had also been pushed off course, moving away from Bermuda. He gave Captain McMillan a new route that aimed the plane directly into a strong wind. However, McMillan still believed they would reach Bermuda with at least an hour of fuel left.
A merchant ship, SS Troubadour, reported seeing a low-flying aircraft with blinking lights about halfway between Bermuda and Delaware Bay. If that aircraft was Star Tiger, it had gone far off course. This sighting was reported around 2:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
At 3:00 a.m., Captain Griffin on the Lancastrian updated his estimated arrival time from 3:56 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. He called Star Tiger to switch to voice communication to contact Bermuda Approach Control. Griffin later said he heard no sign of trouble from Star Tiger and that his plane did not experience turbulence, ice, fog, or storms until he landed at 4:11 a.m.
Loss
At 03:04, Radio Officer Robert Tuck aboard Star Tiger asked for a radio bearing from Bermuda, but the signal was too weak to get an accurate reading. Tuck tried again 11 minutes later, and this time the Bermuda radio operator successfully recorded a bearing of 72 degrees, accurate within 2 degrees. The Bermuda operator sent this information, and Tuck confirmed he received it at 03:17. This was the final communication from the aircraft.
At 03:50, the Bermuda operator attempted to contact Star Tiger but received no response. He assumed the aircraft might have switched to direct radio contact with Bermuda Approach Control. However, Approach Control denied this. The Bermuda operator tried again at 04:05 but failed to reach Star Tiger. After another attempt at 04:40, he declared a state of emergency.
No distress message was received by the Bermuda operator or anyone else, even though many listening stations were tuned to Star Tiger's frequency.
On 30 January 1948, a news report stated the plane was lost 440 miles (710 km) northeast of Bermuda.
Search
The U.S. Air Force members at the airfield quickly started a rescue mission that lasted five days even though the weather got worse. Twenty-six planes flew for a total of 882 hours, and ships and boats also searched, but no trace of Star Tiger or her 31 passengers and crew was ever found. On February 1, 1948, a B-17 search plane saw several boxes and an oil drum 325 miles (523 km) northwest of Bermuda. It is not known if these floating items were from the missing plane.
Investigation
After the Star Tiger was lost, the British government ordered the remaining Avro Tudor planes to stop flying. These planes were later allowed to carry cargo instead of passengers, but they had to take a different route from Santa Maria to Bermuda through Newfoundland. This change shortened the longest part of the trip over water by 250 miles (400 kilometers).
Avro’s managing director, Sir Roy Dobson, and BSAA’s Don Bennett both said the plane was not faulty. However, the minister decided a legal investigation was needed to find out why the Star Tiger crashed. This was the first such investigation since the loss of the airship R101 in 1930. Bennett strongly disagreed with the decision, and BSAA removed him from his position.
Lord Macmillan led the investigation, with help from two experts: a professor of aviation from the University of London and the chief pilot of British European Airways. Professor Arnold Hall from the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) also worked on the case. Other people involved included Quentin Hogg QC, John Donaldson QC, and Joseph Orrell.
The investigation took place in public at Church House, Westminster, starting on April 12, 1948, and lasted 11 days. On August 21, the report was given to Lord Pakenham, who had replaced Lord Nathan of Churt as Minister of Civil Aviation. The report noted that the Star Tiger’s crew was very experienced but found that the flight plan showed a lack of care and attention to detail. However, the report did not find any serious issues that could explain the crash.
The investigation concluded that no reliable evidence was found about the cause of the Star Tiger’s crash. The report said, “In the complete absence of any reliable evidence… the Court has not been able to do more than suggest possibilities… What happened in this case will never be known.”
Among the passengers was Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, a World War II hero who led the 2nd Tactical Air Force during the Battle of Normandy. His death was reported on the front page of The New York Times on January 31, 1948, along with news about the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the death of Orville Wright.
If the Star Tiger’s radio failed shortly after 03:15, the captain and navigator would have had to find a small group of islands. These islands were 22 miles (35 kilometers) long and covered 20 square miles (52 square kilometers). They had strong lights visible from about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away at the plane’s assumed altitude. At that time, the plane was 340 miles (550 kilometers) from the islands and had enough fuel for 3.5 hours of flying. However, flying in a gale storm could have caused stronger winds than expected, using fuel faster than the crew realized. The pilot, McMillan, would have faced difficulty landing, but there was no alternative airport nearby. The nearest point on the American mainland was Cape Hatteras, 580 miles (930 kilometers) to the west, far beyond the plane’s range. There was no evidence that radio failure or navigation errors caused the crash.
If the engines failed, the plane could have reached Bermuda on two engines. However, flying at a lower altitude would have made handling problems more dangerous. The Star Tiger and the Lancastrian flew much lower than usual, and no previous BSAA flight had flown so low for so long. Wind forecasts were unreliable, especially at lower altitudes. A sudden strong gust could have caused the plane to crash into the sea, or a mistake by the crew or a faulty altimeter could have led to a slow descent without a chance to send a distress signal. One key issue was that the planned cruising altitude was 2,000 feet, but all position reports from the Star Tiger said the plane was flying at 20,000 feet (6,100 meters). Since 20,000 feet was a more common altitude for this route, it is possible the crew forgot they were flying at 2,000 feet and accidentally flew into the sea during the descent. The crew may have been tired after the long flight, and altimeters at the time were prone to errors in reading thousands of feet. The plane also had a radio altimeter.
Earlier, the Star Tiger had been forced to change course twice to Gander, Newfoundland. Just two months before the crash, another Tudor IV had landed with less than 100 imperial gallons (450 liters; 120 U.S. gallons) of fuel left—less than the amount by which the Star Tiger was overloaded.
Aftermath
During the investigation, Bennett said both the Star Tiger and Star Ariel may have been damaged on purpose. He also said the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, told everyone to stop looking into the events.
A newer idea from 2009 suggests that not having enough fuel might have caused the plane to vanish. Also, the fuel controls for the extra fuel tanks were in the passenger area. If they were not already turned on, a crew member would need to go to the back of the plane to switch to the reserve fuel. However, there may not have been enough time to do this because the plane was flying at a very high altitude.