HERC: Beyond the plane’s pilot, and discounting flashbacks, will we meet during the first 13 hours any human beings beyond the 48? DAMON LINDELOF: I will not comment on whether or not we'll be meeting any other human beings on the island who were NOT on the plane. But I will posit this -- Who's to say we haven't already?On the other hand, Lindelof also hinted that something “probably not another airliner” would “certainly” crash into the island:
HERC: I’m guessing the crash, and the location of the crash, was dictated by something more than happenstance. Moreover, I theorize the plan is to make another airliner crash into the island before season four. Am I nuts? DAMON: Neither the crash, nor anything else, is dictated by happenstance. As to ANOTHER major crash before season four? Hmmmm. Well, probably not another AIRLINER... but certainly something...Maybe he was thinking about the small plane that killed Boone? I asked first-season writer-producer Jesse Alexander several months ago whether – when he was working on the series – he was aware Hurley would spend time in 1977. His answer? “Fuck no!” I seem to remember Lindelof and Cuse saying they weren't certain at the end of season five that they would even pursue the flashsideways. And so what? I’m pretty sure pretty much ALL series TV works this way: The creators have some vague idea of how their series will eventually end (Bill reaches Earth, Tony dies suddenly, Jack’s eye closes) and they get together at the beginning of each season and work out as best they can what’ll happen in the next 22 episodes (though they’re probably have more details on the first 11 than the last 11). Sometimes changes are dictated by what happens with casting. We know Ben was originally going to stick around three episodes and Eko was supposed to stick around till season five. I'd wager that if CBS' "Cane" proved a bigger hit, we'd have seen a lot less of Richard Alpert in the last two seasons. Who knows what else changed along the way?