Another thing that makes me think Michael, is because the actor who played Michael was asked to appear in the Season Finale but refused. Where else would he have fit into this episode?
The newspaper Jack was reading came off of the airplane, who knows where it was from. It doesn't say that he died in New York but was from there. The Ben theory makes absolutely no sense to me. Ben will not come off the island alive. He wasn't from NY, and will never see it.