Who if Anyone faked the Crash if 815

Who do you if anyone had the Plane Crash Faked?

I thought the Captain resolved this last night and said it was Charles?

We already know its his boat, why wouldent he stage a crash and steal the black box

I thought the captain was saying Ben staged the crash. and was wondering where Ben had gotten over 300 bodies from . I think Widmore is more interested in the Island not so much in the plane.

We must ask, .. who has the most to gain if everyone on board the plane is thought to be dead? Ben seems lke the best canidate at first glance, because first and foremost Jack removed the tumor on his spine. Next, Michael is now helping him spy on a boat tha would have been there regardless if 815 crashed, because we have been made to believe it was alerted from the first time Desmond failed to turn the key. Next, Ben has Locke, who has pretty much fell for every one of Ben's moves so far. Lastly, he has recruited Sayid as a competent killer. Add in the fact that the tailies removed his love interests competition, and it seems Ben has gotten the upper hand when fate dealt him a plane load of survivors. But what does Widmore gain in advantage of this turn of events of 815...?
I've always figured nothing, since Widmore had Desmond's bait in place for Penny to find and he would be set just following. Let love do the work for you... so I assume that Jacob, or the island, or whatever force is working with Ben, bought 815 as tools for Ben to use. So maybe the Captain is telling the truth.
Remember, Michael. ..er Kevin is following orders from Ben, so of course he would wanr not to trust the captain!
All in all, great episode, has me thinking a Great deal!

Could be Paik, in collaboration with Whitmore. I think Whitmore is involved only because when the pilot called up to report the missing wedding ring he ended up getting to the island, seems to me like Whitmore is tying up loose strings.

But when the Frank called the hotline, Whidmore could've gotten wind of that and that might have tipped him off that it wasn't the real plane etc. All because of Frank's insight, Whidmore had the black box retrieved, learned for sure that the plane was a fake... Seems if Whidmore was behind it and Frank had knowledge that it was fake, Whidmore would've just had him killed not employed him.

Why kill him when you can use him and keep less people in the loop?

If you want to talk of a cover-up, why take the black box. That is evidence in the death of over three hundred people, surley the FAA would like to have it. Why does the Cap show Des and Sayid the box? what does that acheive? He could have showed them pictures and newspapers if he just wanted to prove that the plane was recovered w/ bodies. I can't figure out why he would even show the box. Somewhere in that box is evidence, presumably, that the plane at the bottom of the trench is not 815. So why would Widmore use so much of resources to procure it, if not for a cover-up???

grrr that line of logic destroys my argument. My retort has to be that there is no proof that the flight data recorder is from the plane in the trench. All we have is Gault's explanation.

Why would it even be on the freighter if Whitmore was the good guy hunting Ben? Shouldn't he have it as evidence against Ben should he ever actually capture him? I think it was mentioned that they picked it up from the salvage vessel, but why pick it up at all? If it really took so many of Whitmore's resources to obtain, why spare the simple resource of a safety deposit box to keep it safe? Is it more feasible that Whitmore spent all this time and energy procuring the recorder only to send it about as near as it could be to Ben? Even if it is the real recorder, I find it hard to believe that with all of Whitmore's resources he couldn't forge data on it for his own purposes.

If anything, if the thing is real, then it's more a smoking gun than a proclamation of righteousness. If Ben did fake the crash, then wouldn't he have covered his bases? Why leave the flight data recorder in the plane at all? It would have been much easier for the party who did fake the crash to obtain the box since they had orchestrated it all to begin with.

I don't think the captain was telling the truth, not from the note but from his mannerisms, course he's a new character so we don't know his mannerisms yet. I just think it seemed way too rehearsed. The line about 'Sayid knowing the truth because he's still breathing' just seems way too unconversational. If Gault's objective really is to get Ben to make him answer for the fake plane crash, he would have come out and said it. It would be more literal. He would use them, they obviously know more about what's happening on the island then he does.