State: Crash shuts down Mile High Club

For the price of six nights at a cheap motel, couples could take a one-hour fling in the skies over Key West, thanks to a 9-month-old aviation business that offered a cozy venue for "mile high" sex.

The Key West Mile High Club discreetly kept a low profile, averaging four couples a week -- including 11 who allowed their conjugal liaisons aboard a Cherokee 6 single-engine plane to be videotaped and replayed over the Internet.

Now, according to its answering machine, the club has "suspended operation until further notice" after Thursday's reported hijacking by a Cuban couple in their 60s who, according to the pilot, caused the plane to crash in the Straits of Florida.

The couple, whose identities still were unknown Friday, were presumed dead when they failed to follow the pilot out the door as the plane sank. No family members of the mysterious pair have come forward to authorities, and the pilot had no explanation why they wanted to go to Cuba.

After years of smugglings and dangerous crossings in the waters off Key West, authorities in South Florida are accustomed to tragedies involving Cubans. But the victims almost always are headed away from their native country.

The FBI is involved because the agency investigates hijackings. But two important pieces of evidence -- the plane and the passengers -- remained missing after a U.S. Coast Guard search was called off after five hours Thursday.

"If it was a hijacking, where are our subjects?" asked FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

Asked whether the bureau was investigating the possibility of a hoax, Orihuela said, "At this point, we don't have anything that points to that."

She said the bureau would decide soon whether to search for the plane, but it depends on several factors, including the depth of the water.

The pilot, 36-year-old Thomas P. Hayashi of Key West, told authorities he tried to tilt the plane to distract the alleged hijackers, but the male hijacker fell on the throttle and broke it, disabling the plane. After issuing a frantic mayday call, the pilot brought the plane down intact about 40 miles south of Key West.

Hayashi said he opened a hatch, jumped into the fuel-laden water and tried to help the couple to safety, even though they had threatened him a few moments earlier.

"Mr. Hayashi said he told them to get their life jackets . . . on as they were going down," Coast Guard Lt. Vickie Neblock told the Key West Citizen. "However, they inflated their life jackets while they were still inside, which you're not supposed to do."

Hayashi swam back to the plane and tried unsuccessfully to open the door, Neblock said. The passengers reportedly had their life jackets and seat belts on when the plane sank.

"He said they were not moving," Neblock said.

Hayashi was rescued by the Coast Guard, treated at a Key West hospital and released. He was said to be badly shaken.

The plane had taken off shortly after noon from tiny Key West International Airport.

The Miami Herald reported the couple had used a knife on the plane, but the FBI would not confirm that Friday.

The "mile high club" is "a tongue-in-cheek thing that people have been kind of joking about for years," said Phil Kessler, owner of the Mile High Club Web site, which sells merchandise for couples who claim membership. It also features lurid tales of people who say they have had sex at 5,280 feet and higher.

Among the photos is a mostly naked couple skydiving while having sex. They did wear helmets.

"People are bored on long flights, and if they want to get creative with their intimacy it's a good outlet for them," said Kessler, who lives in San Diego. In recent years, he said, more operations such as the Key West Mile High Club have opened up as couples opt for something more than the lavatory of a commercial jetliner.

Kessler said he recently was contacted by Peter J. Green, the owner of Fly Key West, the company that operates the Key West Mile High Club. He shared an e-mail from Green, who wanted to advertise on Kessler's Web site.

In it, Green says the company was launched in November. "We started off low profile as we were not too sure of the reaction we would get," he wrote. "So far it has all been very positive."

He said the company offered a 35-minute flight for $199 and a one-hour flight for $299. "It is a small plane but perfect for what we do," wrote Green, who could not be reached for comment Friday. "It means we can keep the prices low enough that couples will go on the spur of the moment."

Green said the business was "gradually getting busier" with 155 couples having used the service as of June 26.

And for those who wanted everyone to know what they had done, he also sold T-shirts.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk