In the episode "Lockdown", a large pallet of Dharma food and supplies is dropped, by parachute and with a flashing beacon.
It's not clear how often these drops occur. They may be related to the Lockdown Incident and if the PRD on the Blast Door map stands for Parachute/Periodical Rations/Resupply Drop then they would occur every 6-8 months.
None of the castaways have so far mentioned anything about seeing or hearing the plane fly over to do the drop.
The drop was noticed by Kate and Jack close to the path to the hatch, at night.
Contained at least one packet of Dharma Initative Macaroni & Cheese Supper (DI 9FFTR731) branded with 'The Swan' logo, which most likely indicates its destination.
In the episode "Dave", the supply drop is scavenged by a large group of castaways including Sawyer, Charlie and Kate. Charlie suggests that Hurley be in charge of distributing the items. Hurley refuses and later chases his imaginary friend away from the drop. The items are not distributed in any organized manner and it is every castaway for themselves. Sawyer appears to get the bulk of the items and later comments that he has 'enough stuff now to open a convenience store.'
All the items we see from "Dave" in the supply drop have the (DI 9FFTR731) branded with 'The Swan' logo.
Theories
- It's not clear whether this is intended for the Hatch residents (most likely), or the Others (perhaps they get their own drop?)
- Maybe Dharma is being generous, purposely giving the Castaways food?
- The drops could account for the newer technology on the island
- The drops are from The Dharma Initiative to The Dharma Initiative
- The Dharma Initiative doesn't know exactly what's going on in the island
- As long as the button is pushed, a station will remain active in the Dharma Mainframe and will get supplies, but no other contact is allowed.
- The Lockdown Incident occured because Dharma did not want the Hatch residents to interfere with the Supply Drop. There was only supposed to be two people in the hatch, so Dharma didn't expect the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors to be on the island.
- The countdown does however give the hatch residents ample time to leave the Hatch (leaving the Computer unmanned).
- Additionally, the ventilation shafts above the ceiling connect the areas seperated by the blast doors. Residents could use this to crawl into other areas of the Hatch. It seems likely that the Blast Doors are meant to keep people from leaving rather than avoid blast or contamination damage, since the ventilation shafts would be a gap in the protection.
- Henry Gale may have entered a different code to initiate the drop.
- A company called Widmore Laboratories may be responsible for the manufacturing of the food products [1], the companys logo could also be seen on Henry Gale's ballon