First of all this is Just My explination for how when and why Desmond crashed the plane.
I know many people dont like the Idea of Time and Space being part of lost and to those people I would say this
"Lost is about Soo much more than just Time and Space."
This only deals with Desmond the swan station and flight 815 and we all know Lost is about so much more.
If you really hate Time and Space your best course of action is to click back before reading any further, your surely not going to like what you read
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Lost season 2 final Desmond tells Locke that He crashed the plane.
Then Desmond runs to find the Key.
When he finds the Key he has a flashback to when he was drunk and planning to Kill himself.
This is My explination of how I think It all went down.
One day a drunk Kelvin explains the failsafe Key to Desmond
He tells him they the failsafe key makes it all go away.
September 22th Desmond follows Kelvin out the hatch and they have a fight, Kelvin gets killed.
Desmond rush's back to the hatch but he’s too late
There is already a System failure.
Desmond tries to enter the numbers but the computer dose not except them.
After Desmond has tried to enter the numbers several times the System seems to Reset.
(what happens at this point is debatable But I think the Island shifts through a rift in time)
About 40-41 days later Desmond is feeling Very alone, Depressed & Suicidal.
Desmond is planning to take his life and is drinking heavily to give himself the courage to do the deed.
Desmond opens his book to read Before he takes his life.
Penny’s letter falls out and Desmond reads it.
This only adds to his feeling of loneliness and Desmond goes into a rage.
Desmond sits down crying.
Desmond decides to put an end to his torment and he turns the Key to make is all go away.
(This action may be how you repair a rip in the space-time continuum, caused by a Sytem Failure.)
When Desmond failed to enter the numbers in time, back on sept22th this caused a System failure that ripped the fabric of space and time.
The Hatch /Island was ripped/displaced from time and space itself.
(Flight 815 crashed into the sea and all died)
When Desmond (Still in the hatch Displaced from normal time and space) finally turned the Kailsafe Key (to kill himself) it repaired the tear that was created back on sept22th with an EMP
This brought the Hatch/Island & Desmond back to the point in time & space when the System Failure caused the tear to begin with.
It also caused Flight 815 to crash on the Island Instead of the sea.
40-41 days passed by for Desmond and he again found himself sitting down crying planning to kill himself.
But this time Desmond hears a sound that distracts him
Desmond goes to see what the sound is
Desmond hears Locke above and realises he is not alone
(This time)
Locke has saved Desmond from his despair
And stopped him from carrying out his suicide.
Later when Locke smash's the computer and causes a 2nd System Failure Desmond manages to turn the key and stops/repairs a tear, but because the computer was smashed is broken the hatch can not reset and is instead destroyed.
I Included this Idea into my most recent Lost Movie I made.
As I said above Lost is about Soo much more than just Time and Space & this only deals with a small part of what Lost is about.
Theory by SpOOky