Mile-high club plane hijacked to Cuba, crashes!
Small Plane Crashes in Florida Straits
By TERRY SPENCER, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) - A plane belonging to a company that specializes in "mile-high sex'' crashed Thursday into the Florida Straits after a couple tried to hijack it to Cuba, the pilot told FBI investigators.
Pilot Thomas P. Hayashi survived, but Coast Guard officials believe the couple sank with the plane in 3,600 feet of water 40 miles south of Key West.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said Hayashi told agents that a Cuban man and woman in their 60s chartered a single-engine Piper Cherokee belonging to Fly Key West, which takes couples on flights where they can have sex. She would not say if the couple told Hayashi why they wanted to rent the plane.
Hayashi told agents that after the plane took off, the couple demanded that he fly to Cuba, Orihuela said. Hayashi told agents he fought with the man, who fell into the plane's throttle, causing the crash, she said.
"We are looking into all of this,'' Orihuela said. She said agents only had first names for the couple, and she would not release them.
Phone messages left at Hayashi's home and at Fly Key West were not returned Thursday. The company's Web site lists prices and descriptions of "Mile High Club'' flights.
Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said Hayashi issued a distress radio call at 12:15 p.m., saying he was ditching into the ocean. A Coast Guard plane located him and dropped a life raft, which he boarded, Diaz said.
A Navy helicopter crew pulled Hayashi from the raft, Diaz said. He was treated for minor injuries.
A Coast Guard cutter and helicopter searched the crash area for about five hours, but found nothing. Diaz said the couple is presumed dead; no recovery effort is planned.