Hawg73 said:
So you're saying the island is real, meaning not some kind of metaphysical limbo, but magnetically cloaked from our view.
Supposedly some of the writers/producers for the show post at a message board and they stated that it wasn't limbo.
As far as the "snowglobe" description, the magnetic thingy could explain that.
According to Einstein's General Relativity, gravity isn't a "force" but is the curvature of spacetime due to the presence of energy or mass.
If gravity can do this, perhaps the magnetic whateveritis can do the same.
The island would be in its own isolated highly curved piece of spacetime seperate from our existance.
So just as on a curved planet, with no continents, if you sail due west you'll get back to where you started.
Pushing the button kept the process running and kept the island isolated.
When the "System Failure" took place the island started to reintegrate with our spacetime and the airplane hit this and crashed.
Turning the key could shut down the whole magnetic thingy and reintegrate the island with the rest of the world.
Assuming this is true, then Dharma, presumably, intentionaly isolated the island from the rest of the Earth.
This ties in with the "quarantine" signs.