The mile-high club (or MHC) is slang for the people who have had sexual intercourse while on board a flying aircraft.
One explanation for the act is the vibration of the plane, which may speed or improve arousal. Some say they have fantasies about pilots or flight attendants, or a fetish about planes themselves. For others, the appeal of joining the MHC is the thrill of doing something taboo and the thrill of the risk of being discovered.
Video Mile high club
History
An early reference to the concept is found in the betting book for Brooks's, a London gentlemen's club. The 1785 entry (only two years after the first successful balloon ascent by Étienne Montgolfier) reads: "Ld. Cholmondeley has given two guineas to Ld. Derby, to receive 500 Gs whenever his lordship has sex with a woman in a balloon one thousand yards from the Earth." (However, there is no further indication that the bet was paid, or even how they would check it if it was claimed.)
A website using the name "Mile High Club" regards the "Club's" "founder" as pilot and design engineer Lawrence Sperry, along with "socialite Mrs. Waldo Peirce"(Dorothy Rice Sims) citing their flight in an autopilot-equipped Curtiss Flying Boat near New York in November 1916. The American transportation authority NTSB reports one case in which sexual activity is at least partly responsible for an aviation accident.
In November 2007, the BBC reported a story headlined "Airline Bans A380 Mile-High Club" about a measure taken by Singapore Airlines. The Airbus A380's twelve first class cabins have double beds, but they are not soundproof. Shortly after the introduction of the cabins the airline asked first class passengers to respect the other passengers.
Maps Mile high club
Noted instances
Some incidents of people attempting sexual activity on planes have become popularly known:
- Richard Branson, the British billionaire entrepreneur and owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin America Airways, claimed that he joined the mile-high club at age 19 (c. 1969) in the plane's lavatory. Afterwards, he found out that his partner in the act was married, and the two had no relationship beyond the encounter in the plane.
- In October 1999, two passengers of an American Airlines 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. Both lost their jobs after the press storm following the incident.
- A 2005 British Airways flight from London to Jamaica diverted to Bermuda when Trevor Blake and Nicola Fitzpatrick, a couple on board, who had possibly been intoxicated even before consuming more beer and wine on the plane, threatened flight attendants after they told them to return to their seats when the attendants found Fitzpatrick giving a lap dance to Blake in a crew jump seat; the two ultimately had to be physically confined to their seats. The two claimed later they had already had sex twice in the aircraft lavatory before that; after their arrest and return to the U.K. Blake was sentenced to prison and Fitzpatrick to community service.
- 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. The couple's lawyer claims that the couple were not engaging in sexual activity, but that the man was sick and resting his head on the woman's lap.
- On 11 February 2007, Lisa Robertson, 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 24 January 2007. Robertson at first denied the allegation, but subsequently admitted the encounter in an interview with the British Daily Mail tabloid. She also said she had stayed with Fiennes at his Mumbai hotel.
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. If British law applied, for example, it may constitute sex in lavatory to which the public has access, contrary to Sexual Offences Act 2003 s.71, with a maximum 6-month term.
Also, for international flights, the law could vary depending on departure and destination cities and the nation of the carrier airline.
However it is common in international law to apply to acts occurred on board a plane the law of the country of its registration, so the legality of the act should be analysed according to this law.
In January 2011, the United Kingdom's aviation regulator body, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), refused to recertify Mile-High Flights, an air charter company located in Gloucestershire for allowing its passengers to have sex while in-flight.
Charter flights
Some commercial enterprises cash in on people's interest in joining the club by offering special charter flights designed for the purpose or by selling souvenir certificates and other items. Some web sites also provide resources such as historical information about the club.
See also
- Public sex
- Sex in space
References
External links
- Plane Headed to Las Vegas Diverted After Couple Tries to Join 'Mile-High Club'
- The Official Mile High Club
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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