Experts ‘crack’ riddle of TV island

MAPMAKERS believe they have figured out the location of the desert island in cult TV serial Lost. The drama features plane crash survivors stranded on a strange island in the middle of the Pacific.

They don’t know where they are but experts at the Collins World Atlas reckon it’s the Line Islands.

The location – and even the existence – of the island has been hotly debated by fans.

A popular theory says they are in the Bermuda Triangle – but that’s in the Atlantic. However, Atlas editor-in-chief Mick Ashworth is convinced the largely uninhabited island chain fits the bill.

He said: “We know the characters are on a flight from Sydney to LA that takes about 14 hours and covers 7500 miles.

“After six hours of flying, which is when according to the pilot the signal was lost, the craft would be between Fiji and Hawaii.

“They were approximately 1000 miles from Fiji and 1700 miles from Hawaii when the plane went off course.

“Upon loss of all contact the plane is turned around to head back to Fiji.

“By the time they crash, they are 1000 miles off-course and inthe vicinity of the Line Islands.” The closest large population centre is Hawaii, about 800 miles away. And Ashworth said the Line Islands are far from welcoming.

He said: “They are a very isolated, hot and wet place to be stranded and I wouldn’t want to rely on catching fish and eating coconuts every day.

“Deposits of guano may be useful as a fertiliser for cultivating the only vegetable that grows there successfully, which goes by the name of bwabwai.

“Typhoons commonly occur between November and March.”

Of course, the Collins theory doesn’t explain why characters’ compasses don’t point north.

The hit show – starring Matthew Fox as Dr Jack Sheppard and Evangeline Lilly as killer Kate Austen – is filmed in Hawaii

Source: The Daily Record, Written By: John Ferguson