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Merge discussion

Abstain: I nominated this. I saw Sumba was an easy one as its a real-world location, and so is best covered under a real-world page like Indonesia in Lost. The same is done for Iraq, Tunisia, UK, USA. However, Membata is a bit different as it isn't a real island from what I can gather (though on the show they call it "uncharted"). It is covered in the Indonesia in Lost page with a main article link, but should this page be completely merged, or does it deserve its own page as a fictional location? --Nickb123 (Talk) 06:43, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

• Keep:Its a fictional location that could become increasingly significant as the series progresses.--Kivipat 13:39, 16 May 2008 (PDT)
• Keep, as per Kiwipat's arguments. As a fictional place that is essential to the Oceanic Six's cover story, it deserves its own article. -- Ao-bōzu 青坊主 * Talk * Contributions
• Keep, agreed with previous comments. Also, fictional places should not be mixed together with real places.

• That's enough for me, just wanted to clarify I had sought discussion first. Keep it is! --Nickb123 (Talk) 06:08, 19 May 2008 (PDT)

Coordinates

Which source do the coordinates come from? They are not mentioned during the press conference.--Rg 16:01, 18 May 2008 (PDT)

• You are right, they weren't - I've shifted the co-ordinates stuff to trivia--Kivipat 22:05, 19 May 2008 (PDT)

Impossible

I've mentioned this before on Oceanic 815, but the (fake) location of the crash site and survivors in Indonesia is a terrible cover story. It's like five thousand kilometres away from the closest point on 815's flight path (which is Sydney, the departure point). That's like a plane disappearing while flying between New York and London, with survivors and wreckage being found in the Gulf of Mexico. Since none of the characters (especially the reporters) question this, I assume it's a geographical screw-up on the writers' part. Which bothers me, because they usually pay very close attention to detail. /rant. Scarecrow 21:43, 22 May 2008 (PDT)

You are quite right Scarecrow, in fact you've underestimated the distance: Membata would be about 4500 miles (7250 km) and 8 to 9 hours flying time west of Wallis Island where this article calculates it crashed. What the writers and producers of Lost have done is like placing the wreckage of a lost Miami-London flight in the Bering Sea off the west coast of Alaska. To compound the error, the rescued Oceanic Six are flown to Honolulu in a C-130 Hercules and presented at a press conference as having been rescued in Membata, 6500 miles away. It would have taken a Hercules about 20 hours' flying time and three refuelling stops. And the assembled press would question why they would fly them first to Hawaii when there are plenty of US bases much closer to the rescue site in the Philippines, plus the US has the use of facilites in Darwin, Australia less than 1000 miles from Membata, and there is also Guam, US territory 2500 miles from Membata. It seems that the writers and producers of Lost are not in that small and privileged segment of US society who are given an education in geography. From Sydney, Australia, I am Oniswakimalypants 04:50, 27 May 2008 (PDT)

First of all, they were not flown from Membata, they escaped to Sumba where they were discovered by the locals to be Flight 815 survivors (I know that does very little as far as how far they were from where they should have been, just keeping the story straight) . Second, it was never said that they were flown directly to a press conference in Hawaii. They would have been checked out medically, been debriefed, met with FAA officials, met with Oceanic reps. This would have taken several days at the least. The press conference was a planned media event covering the heroic return of the crash survivors to the United States proper. As far as being off course as much as the staged crash site indicates, once 815 lost radio contact the outside world has no idea that they only stayed airborne for two more hours. We only know that because the pilot said so, but any discrepency can be chalked up to pilot error - he's not around to deny it. Also, the passengers wouldn't be asked much about it because they weren't the ones flying the plane. The only question is why did Widmore (or Ben) choose the Sunda Trench. That act is what dictates the Oceanic 6's cover story because it has to match the "known" facts or else too many questions will be asked. It seems that some viewers of Lost are not in that small and privileged segment of Australian society who can reason out a storyline without insulting a "large and unprivileged segment of the U.S.". --JDMCMAMC 09:05, 29 May 2008 (PDT)

The reason that Widmore (or Ben) choose the Sudan Trench was because they did not want anybody recovering the bodies (and finding out that they were not the passengers). And as why they were over there? Like stated above the pilot had lost communication and didn't quite know where he was flying. User:LostCloverfield42

It doesn't matter where or when they lost radio contact - Indonesia is just WAY TOO FAR to get to in two hours, and also involves flying over significant proportions of land, over Australia. I'm pretty sure a wayward passenger jet would soon find its way when it saw cities and highways below it, and when the RAAF sent up fighter jets to inquire as to where it was going. Scarecrow 09:22, 5 June 2008 (PDT)