- Mile high club
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"The Mile high club" redirects here. For the song by Bow Wow Wow, see The Last of the Mohicans (Bow Wow Wow EP).
A plane lavatory
The Mile High Club (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have sex while on board an aircraft in flight. 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]
One explanation for the club's allure is the vibration of the plane, 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]
Contents
History
A website using the name Mile High Club humorously claims the "Club's" "founder" as pilot and design engineer Lawrence Sperry[5] along with "socialite Mrs. Waldo Polk" citing their possibly apocryphal flight in an autopilot-equipped Curtiss Flying Boat near New York in November 1916.[6][7]
The American transportation authority NTSB reports a case in which sexual activity is at least partly responsible for an aviation accident.[8]
In November 2007, the BBC reported a story headlined "Airline Bans A380 Mile-High Club" about a measure taken by Singapore Airlines. The airline asked their first class passengers shortly after the introduction of their new Airbus A380 to respect the other passengers. The twelve first class cabins have double beds, but are not soundproof.[9]
Noted instances
Some incidents of people attempting sexual activity on planes have become popularly known:
- 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.[10][11] Both lost their jobs after the press storm following the incident.[12]
- 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.[13] 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, the owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin America Airways, claimed that he joined the mile high club at age 19 (c. 1969) in a plane's lavatory. Afterwards, he found out that she was married, and they had no relationship beyond the encounter in the plane.[14]
- On 11 February 2007, Lisa Robertson,[15] 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 Daily Mail. She also said she had stayed with Fiennes at his Mumbai hotel.[16][17][18]
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, where the aircraft was overflying at the time, and the nation of the carrier airline.[19]
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, a county in South West England for allowing its passengers to have sex while in-flight.[20]
Charter flights
Some commercial enterprises cash in on people's interest in joining the club by offering special charter[21] flights designed for the purpose[22] or by selling souvenir certificates and other items.[23] Some web sites also provide resources such as historical information about the club.
See also
References
- ^ Hestor, Eliot Neal (21 September 1999). "Welcome to the Mile High Club". Salon. http://www.salon.com/travel/diary/hest/1999/09/21/hester/index.html. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
- ^ Rob Woodburn (24 May 2006). "Sex at high altitude". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://blogs.smh.com.au/lostintransit/archives/2006/05/sex_up_in_the_a.html. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
- ^ Lovegrove, Keith (2000). Airline: Identity, Design & Culture. New York: Te Neues Publishing Company. ISBN 978-3823854609. OCLC 247769755. http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-3823854607-0. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
- ^ "Sex: caught at it". TheSite.org. http://www.thesite.org/sexandrelationships/havingsex/performanceproblems/sexcaughtatit. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
- ^ Sperry Inc. History. Sperryinc.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ About MHC: Founding Member. Milehighclub.com (1997-10-13). Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ Check-Six.com – The First at a "Mile High"
- ^ NTSB Identification: MIA92FA051. Ntsb.gov (1991-12-23). Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ ''Airline bans A380 mile-high club'') ''BBC News'' online, 31 October 2007. BBC News (2007-10-31). Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ Cullen, Drew. (1999-10-05) Sex shame at 30,000 ft exec puts Nortel tagline into practice. Theregister.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ Flight attendant report, B767-300, dfw-Manchester, England, couple engaged in sex acts would not stop when ordered to by crew. Arrested by Manchester police. 37000feet.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ Fine for drunken plane couple. BBC News (2000-04-05). Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ CNN.com, "Mile high club? Indictment alleges sex on a plane", 14 November 2006.
- ^ Agence France-Presse, "Branson: I'm no mile-high club virgin", AFP, 29 July 2007.
- ^ Air stewardess: secrets of my five-mile high sex romp with Ralph Fiennes. the Mail on Sunday (2007-02-17). Retrieved on 2011-11-17.
- ^ "Exclusive: 'How I led Ralph Fiennes astray at 35,000 feet'". London: Daily Mail. 15 February 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=436499&in_page_id=1773&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=picbox&ct=5. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
- ^ Mail on Sunday. "Air stewardess: secrets of my five-mile-high sex romp with Ralph Fiennes". http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/femail/article-436846/Air-stewardess-secrets-mile-high-sex-romp-Ralph-Fiennes.html. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
- ^ Luke McIlveen and Fiona Hudson (17 February 2007). "Sex hostie: 'It was worth it'". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21238196-5001021,00.html. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
- ^ "Is sex on a plane legal?". BBC News. 14 February 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6360869.stm. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
- ^ "Sex Flights Gets Grounded By The Civil Aviation Authority". AvStop.com. http://avstop.com/news_january_2011/sex_flights_gets_grounded_by_the_civil_aviation_authority.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
- ^ MileHighClub.com, Mile High Flight Referrals page.
- ^ Kitty Bean Yancy (8 September 2006). "A flight that goes all the way". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-09-07-mile-high-club_x.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
- ^ "MileHighClub.com". http://www.milehighclub.com. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
External links
Categories:- English phrases
- Sexual acts
- Sexual slang
- Airline terminology
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