'Mile High Club' flights grounded by 'prudish' watchdog

Couples hoping to take their love making to new heights by joining the 'mile high club' have seen their hopes crash back to earth after "prudish" aviation watchdogs grounded a Gloucestershire business. Mile High Flights has been flying out of Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, for two years giving couples - and then some - the chance to make love above the clouds – all for as little as little as £640. But health and safety chiefs at the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) have refused to renew the firm's licence claiming the in-flight action could be 'too distracting' for pilots.

Mike Crisp, 36, a software engineer and the founder of the business, accused the civil aviation authority of being prudish. "I'm not giving-up on what was a very popular business idea, because someone at the CAA doesn't like the sound of what goes-on in our plane," Mr Crisp, formerly from Cheltenham and now living in near Worcester. "Joining the Mile High Club is something a lot of British couples dream of and we were providing the chance for people to fulfil that particular fantasy.



"We had people from all walks of life wanting to join 'the club', from 21st birthday flights to 60th birthday ones. We even had one threesome. I am getting emails every week from couples who want to go up in the plane. It's a shame we've had to stop because of some prudish snobbery on the part of the CAA." Mr Crisp developed the idea in 2007 when a close friend landed a pilot's licence. He and a business partner invested more than £10,000 into transforming a Cessna Grand Caravan single-engined plane to accommodate couples, adding fire-proof carpets and upholstery.

According to the CAA, Mile High Flights couldn't give safety chiefs the assurances needed to be issued with a new licence to trade. A spokesman from the aviation authority said: "We cast no moral judgments on what people do in their planes, that's not our business. Safety-wise, as long as all angles are covered we have no issue with that company trading. Unfortunately it became apparent that our safety criteria couldn't be met and the application was not passed."