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Halifax arrest just another chapter in the spotty history of in-flight sex

An Air Canada passenger jet takes off over Halifax Airport on Jan. 21, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Whatever it was that couple on the Air Canada flight to Halifax was doing, it apparently doesn't qualify them for the Mile-High Club.

A man and a woman who arrived on a flight from Toronto on Friday evening were detained and the Halifax-area woman arrested after flight crew reported they'd engaged in a "sexual act" during the trip.

It wasn't intercourse, Cpl. Scott MacRae told the Toronto Star. That rules out Mile-High Club membership, then.

"The people were not naked by any means," MacRae said, adding their clothes were partially opened.

So we're left to imagine what exactly they were doing. Was anyone was in the full upright position before their not-so-happy landing?

But that's not why the 24-year-old woman was collared by the Mounties. Police initially stopped them after she and the 38-year-old man were pointed out by the flight crew.

"As the investigation began, the woman became very agitated and disruptive and was eventually placed under arrest for causing a disturbance," Halifax RCMP said in a news release.

"During the escort to the RCMP office, the woman continued to be verbally abusive, physically resisting and then assaulted police by kicking."

Police, who not surprisingly say alcohol played a part in the incident, jailed the woman overnight. She's to appear in court Feb. 25 on charges of causing a disturbance, assaulting an officer and mischief.

The man, whose hometown wasn't given, was released at the airport but the Mounties say both potentially face charges related to the in-flight whoopee.

[ Related: Two detained after 'sexual act' on Air Canada flight ]

In-flight sex has a long and chequered history. A 2011 article in Slate noted in the Mad Men era, flight attendants sometimes winked at a couple's bathroom trysts.

"According to flight attendant legend, crew members occasionally greeted couples returning from the bathroom with a glass of champagne and a cigarette and officially welcomed them to the mile-high club," Brian Palmer wrote.

Imagine, you could have sex on an airplane. And smoke!

Things changed after the 9/11 terror attacks. Prolonged stays in an airplane lavatory came to mean more than there was something wrong with the in-flight meal and could bring a concerned knock on the door from a flight attendant.

Police in Detroit detained three passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight that arrived from Denver on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 after the flight crew reported that two people had been spending "an extraordinarily long time" in a lavatory, The Associated Press reported at the time.

The pilot's report resulted in the scrambling of two fighter jets that escorted the flight to its landing at Detroit, where it was taxied to a remote part of the airport and boarded by heavily armed police. Three suspects were taken away in handcuffs.

Some initial media reports indicated two people were "making out" in the flying loo but others claimed they were simply airsick.

[ Related: Cathay Pacific pilot, flight attendant dismissed over cockpit sex ]

Whatever they were doing, the passengers were released after authorities determined there was no threat to the aircraft's security, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold explained to AP.

"Due to the anniversary of Sept. 11, all precautions were taken, and any slight inconsistency was taken seriously," Berchtold said. "The public would rather us err on the side of caution than not."

There was no mystery last June when a man and woman were caught having oral sex in front of other passengers on a flight to Las Vegas from Medford, Ore., CNN reported.

The pair, who were each fined US$250 after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, allegedly were asked to stop by a flight attendant. They took a break while the drink and snack cart rolled through but then resumed, CNN said.

CNN last summer also reported an instance of in-flight sexual assault when a New Jersey man was convicted of groping the sleeping female passenger in the next seat on a 2012 flight from Phoenix to Newark. The woman testified she awoke to find Bawer Askal's hand on her breast and another in her shorts.

Askal lost his appeal of the verdict in December. The charges carry a maximum life sentence and US$250,000 fine.