Just to explain further my Atlantis theory. Atlantis has been theorized to exist somewhere in or near antarctica. Thousands of years ago, when it was said to have existed, the antarctic was much more warm and lush. Buried beneath all that ice is a lush, green, tropic-esque environment.
The advanced civilization of Atlanteans, in response to the changing climates of the ice ages created a machine, or had the technology, to create an electro-magnetic field around the island, extended up to the heavens. This forces any cold weather around the electromagnetic field and the island. Ever see the electromagnetic field surrounding the earth and how it extends out from the poles? That is where our aurora borealis come from, when solar wind particles can enter our atmosphere and react see
Image:Magnetosphere schematic.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maybe this EMF doesn't allow the land to be found. Any compasses go crazy when near the island so it is never found. Maybe some type of anomaly occured when the plane got too close or whatever. But nonetheless these people on the island would like to keep their find (or if they are descendants their land) a secret from the outside world at large and will do anything to protect it.
I don't watch enough of the show to go into details about everything that happens, but sometimes a basic, more realistic example often proves correct. The principle of Occams Razor states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.
This is often paraphrased as "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities. All these little events and details on the show are just to plug a storyline in as the show moves along. In the end, its not just about where they are, because once you know thats all the show will be, but if it creates an intricate story line along the way it will be more memorable (think sopranos).
So what is more realistic; that oceanic flight whatever19 somehow magically wandered into a portal and magically wisked themselves away to another dimension or fell into a wormhole and now live in a land buried underneath the sea or they simply stumbled across an unknown land that has been impossible to find because an advanced peoples made it so?
I also found the four toed statue interesting. Possibly the Atlanteans were a different race of humans like neanderthals, except they were brilliant or what have you. Although one could argue the four toes would be from a human in our future as the use of our pinky toe causes us to lose it in the future. But whatever people, Occams Razor in the house (even though its just a show and not a scientific theory).
I hope the creators don't make it something really far fetched and stupid. It should be more plausible. If it is something dumb then that won't be cool.