Oceanic Flight 815
From Lostpedia
Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 was a scheduled flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California, United States, on a Boeing 777 owned by Oceanic Airlines. Under mysterious circumstances, on September 22, 2004, the airliner, carrying 324 passengers, deviated from its original course and disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.
Two months later, a wreckage presumed to be Oceanic Flight 815 was found in the Sunda Trench near Bali, and all passengers were presumed dead. In reality, however, the discovered wreckage was staged, and the real plane suffered a mid-air breakup and crashed on an uncharted Island, with more than 70 passengers surviving the crash itself. Later, six of those survivors made it off the Island and became known as the Oceanic 6.
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Scheduled flight, crew and passengers
There were 324 people on the plane, including crew. ("One of Us") Frank Lapidus later claimed that he was originally supposed to pilot Oceanic Flight 815 on that day, but was replaced by Seth Norris for reasons yet to be revealed. ("Confirmed Dead")
Some of the passengers' seat numbers have been revealed during the show, and many of the main characters' row numbers seem to correspond with the Numbers (which could be seen as an Easter egg). Other seat numbers have also been revealed on ABC-sponsored websites such as Oceanic-air.com, although this information is to be considered non-canonical.
The flight
On September 22, 2004, at 14:15 local time, Oceanic Flight 815 left from gate 23, and took off from Sydney, Australia, scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at 10:42. ("Exodus, Part 2") Sayid Jarrah later commented that the plane traveled in a northeastern direction, typical of commercial airliners on this route. ("Tabula Rasa")
Approximately six hours into the flight, Flight 815 encountered problems with their radio. Having lost contact with ground control, the pilot decided to alter course and "turn back" towards Fiji. Approximately two hours later, having traveled more than 1000 miles off their planned course, the plane hit turbulence, which eventually resulted in the plane's crash. ("Pilot, Part 1")
Electromagnetic buildup
On September 22, 2004, Desmond Hume, who had been maintaining the DHARMA Initiative's electromagnetic station on the Island for the past three months, failed to enter the Numbers into the computer in time after having accidentally killed Kelvin Inman. This resulted in a system failure and an electromagnetic buildup. Although Desmond eventually managed to reset the Swan's countdown, the electromagnetic force had been strong enough to pull down the plane and cause it to break apart in mid-air. Desmond wouldn't come to realize his role in the crash until more than two months later. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
In the Season 3 Blu-ray disc special feature Access: Granted, Lost writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse explained that Desmond's failure to push the button caused electromagnetic forces to build up which interfered with the plane's instrumentation, causing it to crash on the Island.
The crash
Moments later, the front/cockpit section and the middle sections crashed on the other side of the Island. The front section crashed in the jungle, and as far as is known, everyone except the pilot was killed upon impact. Meanwhile, the middle section crossed over the island (dropping Jack Shephard in the jungle near the shore) and came to land on the beach, where the majority of the survivors landed. 48 passengers from the main fuselage section survived the crash, although Gary Troup was killed only moments later, when he was sucked into an engine and caused it to explode.("Pilot, Part 1")
Other debris scattered the Island, including the cargo compartment which landed mainly around the caves ("White Rabbit"), and a number of seats which landed in a natural pool in the jungle. ("Whatever the Case May Be")
The search
Family members of those onboard only found out the plane was missing when they got to the arrival gate. News coverage about the mysterious disappearance of the plane was soon given a lot of airtime on channels such as WN News and even on Greek, Italian and Arabian television. Immediately after the plane's crash on the Island, Mikhail Bakunin started monitoring the news coverage from The Flame, and informed Ben Linus and Juliet Burke about the information he had been able to gather thus far once they arrived there. ("One of Us") It's currently still unclear how long the media coverage continued, and whether the search for the plane was still going on by the time of the purported discovery of the wreckage.
Even though Michael Dawson returned to the USA with his son Walt in December 2004, the two assumed false identities and didn't tell anyone about their whereabouts during the preceding two months, nor did they tell anyone about the Island or the other survivors of Flight 815. ("Meet Kevin Johnson")
In the Find 815 alternate reality game, it was revealed that Oceanic executives later expressed profound disappointment that despite conducting the largest search operation in the company’s history, no trace of Flight 815 had yet been found. The abandonment of the search drew protests from relatives of the 324 missing persons, amongst them dozens of Ocenanic employees, like Sam Thomas. According to GMN World News, it was expected that the passengers of Flight 815 would be officially declared deceased. The events from the Find 815 ARG are not considered canonical.[1]
Purported discovery of the wreckage
A little more than two months after the crash, purported wreckage of Flight 815 was discovered by remote operated vehicles deployed by a salvage ship, the Christiane I, in the Sunda Trench near the Indonesian island of Bali, about 2800 miles from Sydney on a bearing roughly perpendicular to the flight's presumed route to Los Angeles. Footage of the bodies of crew members and passengers were released to the media for television broadcast, and an information hotline for their family members was established by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. However, Frank Lapidus, upon watching a news broadcast about the discovery of the wreckage, quickly came to the conclusion that a body claimed to be that of the plane's pilot, Seth Norris, wasn't actually he. ("Confirmed Dead")
An alternate version of the events leading up to the discovery of the wreckage was depicted in the Find 815 alternate reality game. Here, it was a single ROV operated by Sam Thomas that discovered the wreckage while the Christiane I was searching for the Black Rock, whereas in "Confirmed Dead", two ROVs were used, one of them being operated by a man named Ron and the other by an unnamed fellow member of his crew.
The Oceanic Six
Under circumstances yet to be revealed, six of the survivors of Flight 815 eventually made it off the island, namely Jack Shephard ("Through the Looking Glass"), Kate Austen ("Through the Looking Glass"), Aaron Littleton ("Eggtown"), Hugo "Hurley" Reyes ("The Beginning of the End"), Sayid Jarrah ("The Economist") and Sun-Hwa Kwon ("Ji Yeon"). Dubbed the "Oceanic 6" by the media, they became widely recognized celebrities and were awarded by Oceanic Airlines with "golden tickets" ("Through the Looking Glass"). However, for reasons yet to be revealed, the "Oceanic 6" told a fabricated story about their time on the island, claiming that only two other people in addition to them actually survived the crash of the plane, and eventually died on the island before the remaining six were rescued. ("Eggtown")
Prior to that, two other survivors of the crash, Michael Dawson and his son Walt Lloyd, had already left the Island, but kept their identities a secret and didn't tell anyone about their time on the Island, or that there were still other survivors. ("Meet Kevin Johnson")
"Not meant to be"
Most of the survivors of Oceanic 815 were not supposed to be on the plane, or could quite have easily avoided it altogether. For most of these main characters, there is a reason why they should not have been on that plane or even out of Australia, adding to the sense of tragedy to the narrative, and connecting to the recurring theme of fate.
Canonical characters
- Jack - was originally told that he would not be allowed on the plane with his father's coffin, and was only allowed on after he heatedly argued the point.("White Rabbit")
- Kate & Edward Mars - Had she not helped Ray Mullen, she would have still been on the run in Australia. It is most likely that Mars would still be there too.("Tabula Rasa")
- Locke - Had he informed the Walkabout Tours organizers of his paralysis, they would have denied his application. Once in Australia, Locke also should not have been let on the plane, as Oceanic didn't have a boarding wheelchair for him.("Walkabout")("Exodus, Part 2")
- Sawyer - Sawyer was only on the plane because he was being deported for getting in a fight with an Australian government official in a bar.("Exodus, Part 1")
- Sun & Jin - Only by taking out a lotus flower did Jin ensure both he and his wife boarded the flight. If he hadn't, she would have run away from the airport and he would have stayed to look for her.("House of the Rising Sun")
- Claire - Claire was only on the plane because Richard Malkin pressured her onto it. She was also heavily pregnant, and should not have been allowed to fly internationally.("Raised by Another")
- Sayid - Sayid should have been on a flight the day earlier. He stayed in Australia to claim his friend Essam's body.("The Greater Good")
- Shannon & Boone - Neither would have been on the plane had Boone trusted his instincts concerning his sister and her former cries for help; or if Bryan had refused to take Boone's money.("Hearts and Minds")
- Michael & Walt - If it were not for Brian Porter, Walt would have remained in Australia and Michael in America.("Special")
- Hurley - A number of events happened to Hurley on his way to Gate 23 which would normally have deterred him from catching his flight.("Exodus, Part 2")
- Charlie - Had Liam agreed to rejoin Drive Shaft, Charlie might have stayed in Australia with his brother past the flight date; Charlie could also have taken Liam up on his offer of shelter whilst he got clean from his heroin addiction.("The Moth")
- Ana Lucia - If she hadn't killed Jason and agreed to go with Christian Shephard to Australia to protect him, she would never have been on the flight.("Two for the Road")
- Eko - Didn't believe in the miracle he was investigating in Australia, but his superior asked him to investigate it anyway. If Eko had not investigated, or, alternately, if he had extended his investigation, he would have left Australia on another flight.("?")
- Arzt - Had his date not disappeared or had he stayed to see the Sydney bar scene, he wouldn't have purchased a ticket for an earlier flight back to Los Angeles.("Tropical Depression")
- Nathan - Stayed behind on holiday to sightsee, after a company outing.("The Other 48 Days")
- Joanna - Had to bump her flight 2 days due to her ear infection.("White Rabbit")
- Seth Norris - Piloted the plane in place of Frank Lapidus, the plane's intended pilot.("Confirmed Dead")
Non-canonical characters
- Faith Harrington - Had to book an early flight.(Endangered Species)
- Dexter Cross - Stayed behind with girlfriend and her brother, instead of returning on a different flight.(Secret Identity)
- Elliot Maslow - Lead protagonist from the video game Lost: Via Domus
- Beady Eyes - Lead antagonist from the video game Lost: Via Domus
Trivia
Aircraft model
- The aircraft that was depicted in the crash is in fact an ex-Delta Airlines Lockheed Martin L-1011-1 Tristar.
- There has been only one crash-landing involving the Boeing 777 since its debut. No deaths resulted from that incident, however there were 18 minor injuries.
- The 777 can take heavier turbulence than the human body can withstand. It is also fully automated with all manual backups and multiple backup systems for the transceiver.
- Boeing 777s, like the one used as Flight 815, would never use gate 23 at Sydney Airport, only 767 and 737 are small enough to use this gate.
Date
- The show premiered on September 22, 2004, the same day as the crash. The crash date was confirmed narratively when Locke told Desmond the date. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
- September 22, 2004 was the date of the autumnal equinox, the moment the Sun crosses the plane of the equator from the northern hemisphere.
Unofficial TV station websites
- A British website, Lost The Untold, which was set up by Channel 4, a TV station that aired the first two seasons of Lost in the UK, offered a flight manifest for Oceanic Flight 815 that is inconsistent with information stated on the show itself, as well as details from the Oceanic-air.com website.
- A German site, 108minuten.de, which was set up by Pro Sieben, a TV station that airs Lost on free TV in Germany, also offers a flight manifest (by entering "oceanic", then "815" and then "manifest") that contains the names of other survivors that were never stated on the show itself. However, some of the names on the flight manifest are taken from the Lost The Untold website, while others appear to have been added by Pro Sieben themselves, without any direct involvement from the Lost producers, since it contains numerous errors (Joanna's name, for example, is incorrectly stated as "Ranting, Joanna", whereas Rose and Bernard's last name is stated as "Bernstein"). So this list has to be considered non-canonical. In addition to the manifest, there's also an "official flight transcript" that indicates that the pilot still had contact with Sydney Airport when the plane crashed, which contradicts his recount of how he lost communication with the ground prior to the crash in "Pilot, Part 1".
Outside references
- In the second episode of the show Chuck on NBC, Chuck is being "tested" to see what data he knows from the government secrets that he witnessed. In this scene, he is told to say whatever first comes to mind about pictures that he sees. He says, "Oceanic Flight 815 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile...". (While the last part of the phrase isn't totally clear when listening, closed-caption confirms what is said.) Then the scene cuts.
- In the episode Inferno of the 2005/2006 cartoon series Transformers: Cybertron, the pilot of a military jet fighter identifies himself as "Oceanic Flight 815, requesting clearance for landing" right before the Decepticon Thundercracker scans the plane and adopting its form as his new disguise. The plane's ID code was one of many pop-cultural in-jokes explicitly added for the English dub of the show.
Possible Inspirations
- "Oceanic Feeling" - In Chapter I of his book, Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud discusses a letter he recieved from his friend, the French novelist and mystic Romain Rolland. In this letter, Rolland describes what he calls the "Oceanic" feeling - that is, a feeling of eternity, a deep and innate connection with all things, a "oneness" with the world. Rolland, a "man of faith," sees this "Oceanic" feeling as being the primal source of all religion, but itself independent of any particular religion. Freud, an atheist and avowed "man of science" disagrees. While he admits that many people may experience this "Oceanic" feeling, he locates its source not in some mystical feeling of connection, but in an infantile helplessness experienced when confronted with a hostile world and the subsequent longing for the protection and guidance of the father. For Freud, this "Oceanic" feeling is "sustained by fear of the superior power of Fate."
Unanswered questions
| Unanswered questions |
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- For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Oceanic Flight 815/Theories
- Why did Seth Norris replace Frank Lapidus as the pilot of Flight 815 on the day of the crash?
- Why did the plane have trouble with its radio?
External links
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| Events, Objects & Locations | Flight 815 • Flight 815 Pieces • Flight 815 Mid-air Break-up • Flight 815 Flight Path • Oceanic Plane Mobile • Sydney Airport | |||
| Staff/Crew | Chrissy • Cindy • Co-pilot • Sean Dowling • Flight Attendant • Hunter • Georgia Cavanagh • JD • Jenna • Frank Lapidus • Male flight attendant • Michael Orteig • Michelle • Oceanic Ticket Agent • Oceanic Ticket Agent No. 2 • Sam Thomas • Seth Norris • Sonya | |||
