Flight 2525

**Flight 2525** was a private flight chartered by Lottie Matthews' father Malcolm Matthews for the WHS Yellowjackets soccer team to use for their trip from New Jersey to Seattle to compete in the nationals.

As the team boards the plane, they express awe at her father having chartered the flight, but she dismisses it as being "pretty much his only form of parenting."

### Passengers

* Bill Martinez
* Travis Martinez
* Javi Martinez
* Ben Scott
* Vanessa "Van" Palmer
* Laura Lee
* Charlotte "Lottie" Matthews
* Shauna Sadecki
* Natalie "Nat" Scatorccio
* Taissa "Tai" Turner
* Jackie Taylor
* Mari
* Melissa
* Rachel Goldman
* Misty Quigley
* Akilah
* Kristen "Crystal"
* Gen
* Unnamed Yellowjacket
* Flight Attendant Janet
* Pilot Robert
* Pilot Fred

## History

Prior to takeoff, the pilot states over the intercom that their flight path will take them further north than is standard to try and avoid a storm front out west. At some point during the flight, a currently unknown incident occurs causing the plane to crash in a remote area of the Canadian wilderness. The pilots are unable to regain control and dump fuel, likely to reduce the chance of the fuel igniting as the plane crashes.

The crashed plane is broken into several sections. There is a large main area of the fuselage relatively intact with both the front cockpit and rear tail section broken off. The two pilots, Robert and Fred, and flight attendant Janet, along with Yellowjackets team member Rachel Goldman and the team's head coach, Bill Martinez are killed in the crash. Everyone else survives the initial crash, though assistant coach Ben Scott is badly injured and has to have one of his legs amputated.

The Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) was found by Misty Quigley. Enjoying her newfound popularity and importance as the de facto medic for the group and overhearing praise for her from the other girls, Misty tries to smash the transmitter. When that fails, she manages to rip a power cable out, deactivating the unit and cutting off this possibility of rescue. Ultimately, it is 19 months before those are still alive are finally rescued and returned to civilization.

Shortly following the crash, the survivors discover a nearby lake. They abandon the crash site, scrawling a message on the plane reading "SOS GONE TO LAKE."

25 years later, only seven individuals of the original crash survivors are known to still be alive: Travis Martinez, Lottie Matthews, Vanessa Palmer, Misty Quigley, Shauna Sadecki, Natalie Scatorccio and Taissa Turner. Although there is much speculation as to what sorts of measures the survivors took to survive, they remain tight-lipped regarding their experience, other than to state that they scavenged and starved.

While overdosed on heroin while visiting Travis, Natalie has a haunting vision that nobody survived the plane crash, that they were all just burnt out skeletons and the Antler Queen stalking the aisles. She later tells Lottie that this is how she knows that they brought darkness back with them. Later, after taking a lethal injection, presumably of phenobarbital, that Misty had meant for Lisa, Natalie has a dying vision of herself on the plane. She imagines Javi Martinez, whom she allowed to die in her place in the wilderness, telling her that there's nothing to be afraid of. She says that she's not supposed to be there, but her teenage self tells her that they both know that it's not true, that it's exactly where they belong and they've been there for years. Finally, a vision of the teenage Lottie tells her that it's not evil, just hungry, like them, and to let it in.

## Trivia

* The flight number is never said aloud on *Yellowjackets*, but is visible on a book Adam Martin has in "Doomcoming" - *Skin In the Game: The Unauthorized Story of Flight 2525*. The number is also seen as the combination which Shauna Sadecki uses for her safe, in which she keeps her personal journals and other materials related to the crash.
* The scenario of the team being stranded following the crash of Flight 2525 is based upon the novel *Lord of the Flies*, as well as the real-life Andes flight disaster. The Andes flight disaster is mentioned as having occurred within the universe of the series itself, with those who are aware of it suspecting correctly that the survivors of Flight 2525 eventually resorted to cannibalism.
* Based on context clues and flashbacks, Flight 2525 would have taken off in or around May 1996. This is based on the fact that school events such as those seen in the "Pilot" typically take place in May. Additionally, in Coach Scott's flashback in "Digestif," Paul tells him that he said he would move in with him after the holidays and it is now May. Shortly after this, they break up and Coach Scott boards the flight. Assuming this is the case, given the time the Yellowjackets are stated to have spent in the wilderness, the survivors were likely initially rescued in either very late December 1997 or early January 1998, as the second season premiere "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" shows them being taken home in 1998. This means that the Yellowjackets likely endured at least a portion of another cold wintry season in the wilderness, as wintry conditions can begin fairly early in the fall season in many portions of Canada. Furthermore, in the script for the original "Pilot," the journal entry that Shauna writes stating that it's been almost two weeks and asking why they haven't been found yet is dated June 6, placing the plane crash at or around May 24.
* Cat Wheeler was scripted to be on-board Flight 2525, but her character was deleted from the final version of the series.

## References

1. ↑ The names of the pilots and flight attendants are seen on the grave markers in "F Sharp"