Where on Earth is the
By You Know The Name
Copyright August 3, 2007
Hello everyone! Although I’ve been a long-time fan of Lost, I learned of this site just recently. So, I decided to contribute my own two cents on the show we love. This is my first post, so I’m sorry if I’m repeating some of the same theories postulated previously by other fans. I suggest having a world map nearby (or on your monitor!). I’ll also try my best to keep my deductive logical argument easy to follow.
Here goes…
In my opinion, one of the weirdest pieces of dialogue offered in the “Pilot” episode was in fact given by Oceanic 815’s pilot. He says
“6 hours in. Our radio went out, no one could see us. We turned back to land in
The pilot’s statement would have us understand that the plane crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, near
Everyone (especially the pilot) would have found it strange that the plane was flying in broad daylight, especially if the plane departed
Furthermore, none of the Losties mentioned they felt the plane turning around during the flight (I’ve been on dozens of flights, and planes switching direction is hard NOT to notice).
Also, when they crash on the island, nobody wonders about the sudden change in sky color (ie afternoon to evening to night to afternoon). This leads me to believe they were traveling in daylight all along. Therefore, the plane was always traveling west, chasing the daylight.
Later, we learn that Oceanic 815 crashes because Desmond fails to enter the numbers on time. On the log printout of “System Failure” in the Swan, the time stamp displays 4.16 pm local time Sept 22 2004. This suggests that the Island is in the GMT+3 or +4 time zone, just off the east coast of
In Season 1, we are introduced to Yemi’s Nigerian Beechcraft that apparently crashed on the island. In the flashbacks (I think the episode was “Deux Ex Machina”), we see the beechcraft travel from Nigeria towards the Sahara Desert, in a northerly direction, away from the east coast of Africa.
These inconsistencies bugged me for a long time. How could the pilot not know the true direction of the plane, even with the aid of the sun? My answer = the pilot was lying (as is Cindy, hence telling Jack at the Hydra in Season 3 what was happening is complicated). If they were traveling west all along, the survivors wouldn’t have been aware of the change in course, or the abrupt change of day. However, how could Oceanic 815 reach the east coast of
In my quest for the truth, I learned of the pseudoscientific theory of Vile Vortices— twelve Bermuda Triangle-like areas distributed more or less evenly around the globe (there’s an article on wikipedia for those of you who are interested). My research also led me to World Grid, which provides a map of 10 of the triangular vortices (the 2 missing ones are at the north and south poles). At last, I had a theoretical framework to explain my beliefs.
the theory: The 12 Vile Vortices have the ability to teleport objects (be it ships, subs, planes, balloons, and helicopters) to the island, which exists in its own bubble of space-time thanks to its natural casimir effect. The true location of the island is in the Indian Ocean, in one of the Vortices in the southern hemisphere just off the coast of
The pilot (part of a larger conspiracy) flew his plane west over
Other minor observations lend credibility to this theory. Desmond says the island is about 350 miles from
The theory holds up if one is to believe the only way to track the exact location of the island is to be near or around another Vortex. For example, the “listening station” at the end of Season 2 could theoretically be at the North Pole, Antarctica or the
Wow, that was longer than I expected! I hope it makes sense…Enjoy.
August 6th UPDATE!
Many theorists have speculated that the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 may be the coordinates of the island. Instead of joining the numbers together as most have done (ie.4.815 S latitude and 162.342 W longitude), I decided to take a different approach. I logically assumed that each number was either a degree, minute or second on a standard coordinate grid.
If we take the latitude to be 4 degrees, 8 minutes, 15 seconds South, and longitude as 16 degrees, 23 minutes, 42 seconds West, we end up somewhere in the South Atlantic, between Africa and South America. Changing the longitude to East, we end up in a position somewhere over
However, I then wondered if the numbers should be reversed. There have been numerous themes in Lost about mirrors or reversals (ie through the looking glass, reversal of fortune on the island etc). What IF we reversed the sequence of numbers? Instead of 4 8 15 16 23 42, how about if it were 24 32 61 51 8 4?
I understand that this is now wild speculation, but what if we were to plug in the coordinates as 24 degrees, 32 minutes, 6.1 seconds South Latitude, and 51 degrees, 8 minutes, 4 seconds East Longitude?
Hey presto = you get a location, just off the eastern coast of Africa and
Compare the world grid map, http://www.deepinfo.com/WorldGrid.htm
to my theoretical location of the
August 6th UPDATE 2
I just confirmed a few more things based on insights and fan feedback.
1) If the Island’s location is off the coast of Madagascar, just south of Reunion and Mauritius Islands (as shown in the map above), it will fall into the +4 GMT Time Zone. Oceanic 815 presumably crashed near
2) If the Indian Ocean location is correct, its closest neighbors would be the islands of Reunion and
3) Using the US Naval Observatory’s Sunrise/Sunset calculator, and setting it to December 18 2004, with the coordinates 24 deg 32 min South and 51 deg 8 min East, gives a sunrise time of 5.42 am, consistent with the amount of daylight at 6 am in the episode DOC.
4) Naomi NEVER mentions the country/land her search and rescue team came from, only saying that she was stationed on a vessel 80 miles off-shore (The Brig). For all we know, her vessel could be as far away as the West Coast of the
5) Alexanj brought up an interesting point about the 4-toed-statue and the Greek connection. As evidenced by the Periplus Map, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PeriplusMap.jpg which charts the known early Greek Trade Routes, they journeyed as far south as Raphta,
6) In response to hebrewhammer’s post in his theory page, “If the daylight can be explained by them not actually heading east but west, why didn’t anyone notice that “hey we’re heading towards the sun” when they knew the sun should have been behind them going towards LA?”
I’ve been on extremely long flights (17-18hrs one way!). After about the first few hours, I usually lose track of time, as we’d be flying into different time zones and crossing the International Date Line.
All this is now hypothetical, but maybe someone DID notice they were traveling in the wrong direction, but were conveniently lied to by Cindy or the other flight crew. Shouldn’t you trust them, who’ve traveled the route regularly? Then, before they could tell the others, they DIED.
Remember, out of the 324 passengers and crew of Oceanic 815, only 71 initially survived (72 including Vincent). If we were to assume that the Pilot and Cindy were lying, ONLY 69 passengers were confirmed “clueless” about the plane’s direction. 69/324 = 21.3%, or 1/5 of the passengers didn’t know or couldn’t care less at the time.
Also, there definitely isn’t any astronomer or meteorologist on the island at present, as he/she would have tried to determine the island’s position using the constellations and other sky-related techniques…
Enjoy!
Theory by You Know The Name
