Mile high club

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An airplane lavatory viewed from the outside, demonstrating the small area in which some choose to join the mile high club.

The mile high club (or MHC) is a slang term collectively applied to individuals who have engaged in sexual activity while on board an aircraft in flight at least 1 mile (5,280 ft/1,609 m AGL) above the Earth. There is no known formally constituted club so named. However, since "membership" of the "club" is really a matter of an individual asserting they have qualified, the qualifications for membership are open to some interpretation.^[1]

Some people attribute the allure of the club to the lower atmospheric pressure in the flight cabin, which they claim increases the intensity of orgasms. Another explanation is the vibration of the airplane, which may make arousal easier.^[2] Others say they have fantasies about pilots or flight attendants, or a fetish about planes themselves.^[3] For many others, perhaps the majority, the appeal of joining the MHC is the thrill of doing something taboo and the thrill of the risk of being discovered.^[4]

1 History
2 Noted instances
3 Legality
4 Charter flights
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

In November of 1916 Lawrence Sperry reportedly was engaged in sexual activity with a woman while he was flying in his Curtiss flying boat over Babylon, New York, when they crashed (non-fatally) into the water.^[5] His status as founder of the club is a retrospective honour derived from the fact that he is the first person reported to have engaged in aerial sexual activity, and from his association with the development of the autopilot at Sperry Corporation.^[6] It is not a literal honor, since they crashed from an altitude of only 500 feet (152 meters), and also because the term "Mile High Club" was not in use at the time.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has ruled that at least one accident was caused by a pilot engaging in sexual activity while piloting a small plane.^[7]

The Airbus A380

In November 2007, Singapore Airlines asked passengers on its new Airbus A380 plane not to 'join the club' even in its first class suites, each of which is partitioned off and some include a double bed. The airline gave as its reason the fact that the partitions are not sound-proof and the suites are not completely sealed, and they did not want any other passengers to be offended .^[8]

[edit] Noted instances

Some incidents of people attempting sexual activity on planes become popularly known:

in October 1999 two passengers of an American Airlines

leon and tom flight from Dallas to Manchester were arrested after engaging in "sex acts" in front of other passengers in the business class section of the aircraft.^[9]^[10] Both lost their jobs after the press storm following the incident.^[11]

in late 2006, a couple was arrested in part for refusing to stop overt sexual activity on a flight in a case that received widespread media attention.^[12] The couple's lawyer claims that the couple was not engaging in sexual activity, but that the man was sick and resting his head on the woman's lap.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, claimed that he joined the mile high club at age 19 (c. 1969) by engaging in sex with a woman in a lavatory. He found out after that she was married, and they had no relationship beyond the encounter in the plane.^[13]

On February 11, 2007, Lisa Robertson,^[14] a Qantas flight attendant, was dismissed after having sex with actor Ralph Fiennes in a business class lavatory during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai on January 24, 2007. Robertson at first denied the allegation, but subsequently admitted the encounter in an interview with the Daily Mail. She also said she had stayed with him at his Mumbai hotel.^[15] Fiennes has refused to comment on the matter.^[16]

[edit] Legality

The BBC ran an article investigating whether sex on a plane was legal. Their conclusion was that it would depend on many factors, such as whether or not the act occurred in sight of others. Also, for international flights the law could vary depending on departure and destination cities, what country(s) was being overflown at the time, and the nation of the carrier airline.^[17] All these questions determine the jurisdiction that might have authority over the airplane and its occupants.

[edit] Charter flights

For those seeking a novel way to join the club, several^[18] private charter companies offer the opportunity to book a flight for the express purpose of engaging in sexual activity. Some commercial enterprises cash in on people's interest in joining the club by offering special charter flights designed for the purpose^[19] or by selling souvenir certificates and other items.^[20] Some web sites also provide resources such as historical information about the club.