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.[citation needed] 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]
History
In November 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 founding member of the club is a retrospective honour derived from the fact that he and his unknown friend were the first persons 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 m), 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]
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]
Noted instances
Some incidents of people attempting sexual activity on planes 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.[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, 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]
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]
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.
Popular culture
 |
The term has been widely used in the media, mostly throughout the last decades.
- In film: "The Wedding Singer", "Urban Legends: Final Cut", "Falcon Down", "Just Married", Labor Pains, Going the Distance, Soul Plane, EuroTrip, Trust the Man, Red Eye, Snakes on a Plane and The Bucket List.
- In television series: "Family Guy", "Mile High" and "Two and a Half Men" (episode The Salmon Under My Sweater).
- In the video game Call Of Duty 4 there is a epilogue level called Mile High Club
- In the song "Rockstar" by the band Nickelback, the singer states that he is "Gonna join the Mile High Club"
- In a Beck's beer commercial, where a male airplane passenger chooses a seat upgrade that offers beer, over his current seat next to a beautiful woman. He envisions his choices as the Admiral's Club, or the Mile High Club.
- In the song "Caught up in the Moment" by Big & Rich, the two characters in the song have intercourse on an airplane and then the singers state, "They were full-fledged members of the You-Know-What Club."
IMDB has the keyword "Mile High Club" for movies and TV shows which depict people engaging in sexual activity while on board aircraft.
References
- ^ Hestor, Eliot Neal (September 21 1999). "Welcome to the Mile High Club". Salon. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Rob Woodburn. "Sex at high altitude". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Lovegrove, Keith (2000). Airline: Identity, Design & Culture. New York: Te Neues Publishing Company. ISBN 978-3823854609. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
- ^ "Sex: caught at it". TheSite.org. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
- ^ Aerial Petting Leads To Wetting; Lawrence Sperry - Flier, Inventor Mile High Club's Founder
- ^ Scheck, William. "Lawrence Sperry: Autopilot Inventor and Aviation Innovator". Historynet.com. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
- ^ MIA92FA051 "NTSB Report". Retrieved 2006-10-03.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "Airline bans A380 mile-high club." BBC News online, retrived 1 November 2007.
- ^ Sex shame at 30,000 ft exec puts Nortel tagline into practice
- ^ 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
- ^ Fine for drunken plane couple
- ^ CNN.com, "Mile high club? Indictment alleges sex on a plane", November 14 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
- ^
"Exclusive: 'How I led Ralph Fiennes astray at 35,000 feet'". Daily Mail. February 15 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^
Luke McIlveen and Fiona Hudson (February 17 2007). "Sex hostie: 'It was worth it'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Is sex on a plane legal?". BBC News. February 14 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ MileHighClub.com, Mile High Flight Referrals page.
- ^ Kitty Bean Yancy (8 September 2006). "A flight that goes all the way". USAToday. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "MileHighClub.com". Retrieved 2006-10-03.