On episode of 2-15-06.
When Syad was questioning the new man considered to be an "Other". The man said he and his wife had crashed there in a hot air balloon.
He even described it with a smiley face on the top. Since Syad seemed so sure the man was an other I remebered back to when Jack and Locke were first talking to Desmond and did he not say he had been in a cross country triathelone or something where he was in a hot air balloon? Could the others maybe have found his hot air balloon and maybe that is how the new guy came up with the response that he did so quick for Syad?