Not Widmore's Plane?

[D-Roc]

Did Widmore really stage the wreckage?

The scene were Tom gave Michael the file on Widmore's acquisitions reminded me of the scene where Ben showed Locke the tape of Widmore - both Ben and Tom wanted to prove their side of the story, to invest Locke and Michael in helping them to protect the island by carrying out their will.

Here's the thing - Team Widmore also appear to be doing the same thing. Captain Gault has been very forthcoming with information - he almost fell over himself to tell Sayid and Desmond about the black box and 'not Widmore's plane'.

So who to believe? Well the file that Tom showed Michael is quite interesting and paints a convincing picture:

So let me get this right -Widmore is a grave robber, who paid for 300 odd Thai bodies to be dug up and dumped at the bottom of the Sundra Trench and not one of those bodies was recovered by the authorites? OK, so they would be in pretty bad condition, but there would be outcry at this - the families and friends of these people simply wouldn't let it rest.

If it takes $450,000 to purchase the shell of a freighter - then surely the compensation money given to the families of these people would have been pooled together and an independant salvage operation would have been arranged? When people die, families like to know that there loved ones bodies have been buried..not just left at the bottom of a trench somewhere.

Also, how did Widmore arrange all of these within the space of 6-8 weeks of the plane disappearing? It would take take long to dig up 300 hundred graves, let alone compile the entire operation (ok, not quite, but you get the point).

Another contentious issues is how on earth Widmore knew the plane had split into three parts? It was not necessary for him to ensure that the staged plane split in three, because no-one in the real world would know that it did - so either this attention to detail was for out benefit or it's a major coincidence.

I just think that even with the information gleaned from "Meet Kevin Johnson", Ben is still the most likely person responsible for putting the wreckage down in the trench - it's just far easier and less convoluted to 'magic-box' a near duplicate than it is to physically stage a wreckage.

If it is Widmore industries who are responsible, then I think they are VERY lucky to have not been found out by now - except by Ben, of course.