Joining The Mile High Club - The Risk

It is a term we have all heard - The MIle High Club, but is it legal and what kind of problem could it cause? Richard Branson and Janet Jackson are confirmed members but what happens if you try it and are found out, what could happen to you?

At present an A-list actor is accused of joining the club whilst on a flight by having sex with a flight attendant. Quantus are investigating the incident, but is it illegal to have sex on an aircraft?

BBC News have spoken to a Crown Prosecution spokesperson about the legalities and he has been quoted as saying that he was not aware of any prosecutions that have been made regarding this act. He went on to say, "The police would need to have a complaint and they would then investigate, and if they thought there was a case to answer then we would make a judgement on whether there's a case to bring forward."

Philip Banks, a travel lawyer says that the act in the aircraft toilets could be a criminal offence as under section 71 of the Sexual Offences Act 2004 a crime is being commited if the public have access to the toilet that the act is taking place in. In fact airlines can hand out their own punishments if a passenger(s) were to be caught red-handed.

However due to the uncertainties of the act it is not clear which laws would come into effect as it could possibly be affected by the country that the aircraft was over or the destination being flown to. However if matters occured over international waters then this would also prove difficult to distinguish. However rules must apply regardless of the area the aircraft is in, if a person was to murder another on the flight they would be detained so some clarification of this is clearly needed even though it is a rare incident.

Being caught is very rare so it is difficult to know how often this sort of thing occurs however in 1999 Amanda Holt and David Machin were charged with outraging public decency after having sex in their seats on an American Airlines flight, they were given a fine for the offence.

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Published by: Jon Vickery