Last week I posted a link on Facebook about a “sex diving incident” which had the FAA investigating two skydivers after a sexually explicit video was passed around at a local high school, showing a couple having sex in a small plane and continuing through a skydive.

Since then I’ve done a little more research out of curiosity as to why the film was made and why the FAA were investigating the poor pilot, who simply ferried the skydivers to their jump point as with any other skydive.

Skydive Taft offers accelerated free fall training as well as tandem skydives for first-time jumpers.

Alex Torres worked at Skydive Taft as a part-time instructor and Hope Howell was the receptionist. They were the stars of the video.

The film, titled “SexSkyDive” by Live2FlyVoodoo Productions, was a low-budget project. In the early hours of the morning before the skydiving school opened, Torres and Howell met up with a pilot and a camera man to create the footage. The good-looking couple boarded the plane naked and were filmed having sex next to the pilot as the flight began and then continuing with their, um, throes of passion as they jumped out in tandem and soared through the sky. The cameraman jumped after them for long range shots and Torres appears to have had a camera in his hand to get a close-up view of Howell’s ecstasy.

Alex Torres, a French-Canadian porn star known in the industry as Voodoo, then posted the video on his blog.

SEX SKYDIVE!!!! THE CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO SEEN WORLD WIDE!!! – voodoopornstar’s posterous

I am Voodoo, your guide into a world of perverted adrenaline and sacreligious behavior. Ready or not, here I cum. I am a CONTRACT PORNSTAR and pro skydiver and I am the only Pornstar Skydiver in the world to actually have sex while skydiving!!! I live2fly and fly2live. And yes, I am a true NYMPHOMANIAC!!! MY GOAL IS TO HAVE MY OWN REALITY SHOW ON MTV!!!

His initial commenter is not so very impressed:

Sorry to burst your bubble dude, but we were doing this back in the 70’s, without the tandem harness tho, which makes it somewhat more difficult to stay “together”, but we weren’t porn stars either so I guess you’re right.

The video begins with the url and phone number for Skydive Taft with “Wish you were me?” in the foreground written on a woman’s hand. This photograph is from the Skydive Taft website and appears to me to be Alex Torres jumping with Hope Howell, although with a bit more clothing than in the video:

The sexual nature of the clip attracted the attention of staff at a local highschool where the students were passing it around. The police investigated and contacted David Chrouch, the owner of Skydive Taft. Chrouch claimed to have not known about the video and fired Alex Torres immediately. He told the local news reporter that he was undecided as to whether to fire his receptionist as well. Torres is said to have immediately removed the video from his website but it is present on the link above, presumably reinstated once the police admitted they had no reason to charge the skydiving couple.

All of the participants were consenting adults. The flight took place in the early morning and there were no witnesses, so there was no issue of public nudity. The frustrated police stated that there was no crime but notified the FAA who agreed to investigate the pilot. The video shows Torres and Howell having sex within inches of the pilot. There is no filmed interaction between the couple and the pilot.

Ian Gregor, spokesman for the FAA, admitted that there was no explicit policy on sexual conduct on private planes. However, he justified the investigation stating that “any activity that could distract the pilot while he’s flying could be a violation of federal regulations.”

Here is the original, uncensored video which is NOT SAFE FOR WORK nor do I recommend watching it with your children within hearing distance. Seriously, it’s meant to be a porn flick. Don’t press play unless you are happy to view explicit sexual footage.

If you’d rather play it safe, you can watch this clip from CNN which is “safe for work” and includes tasteful stills from the video:

David Chrouch says that his sky-diving instructor came up with the stunt in order to get the attention of Howard Stern. He claims that he had no idea they were planning the porn flick and that the couple had lied to the pilot, saying that they had the OK to do the filming. But Thomas Roche posted on Violet Blue’s open source sex site questioning the situation.

He believes that receptionist Hope Howell was also a porn star and the pair had been hired to perform the sky-diving stunt. Certainly Hope Howell told ABC news that she’s done more than a dozen adult films, although this was only her fourth jump. She also said that her boss, David Chrouch was involved in the planning.

Woman In Skydiving Sex Tape Speaks Out – South County News Story – KERO Bakersfield

The owner of the company, David Chrouch, said he wasn’t there when the stunt happened and didn’t know what was being planned. Howell said that’s a complete lie. “Our boss was there. Everything was approved. We did plan it out,” Howell said. There has also been confusion about whether or not she was fired from her receptionist job at Skydive Taft. She said call it whatever you want, she is not working there anymore. “I got a phone call saying I was fired, and I feel like that was a stab in my back,” Howell said.

Thomas Roche sums it up in his post (Note: website contains adult material and is not safe for work: Skydiving Sex Scandal! But Who’s Getting Screwed? | violet blue ® :: open source sex):

So here’s the deal: Skydive Taft hired “the only Pornstar Skydiver in the world” as a skydiving instructor, hired a hot 20 year old who appears to also be an adult performer as the school’s receptionist…then fired them for making porn while skydiving? Am I alone in thinking that would take some monumental cluelessness? Or is it that it would take monumental cluelessness to believe Chrouch didn’t know about the stunt? Just how stupid does this guy think we are? This is obviously a publicity stunt from the start, but I seriously doubt it’s an example of Torres and Howell conspiring to screw their employer, or even do something they thought they could “get away with” and then get proven wrong. I find it much more likely that Skydive Taft owner David Chrouch was in on the whole thing from the get-go, for publicity reasons…and then he chickened out when the cops came sniffing after him.

Last Friday, the spokesman from the FAA conceded that the video evidence confirmed that the pilot was not distracted. Having seen the video, I have to agree that the pilot is clearly focused on the flight and does not appear to be particularly interested in his passengers.

Skydive Taft owner David Chrouch spoke to local newstation KGET about the investigation:

No, I wasn’t concerned. He was in complete control of the plane at all times. I mean he looked back a couple of times. The same thing he does if there are other skydivers in the plane. He is going to look back, he’s going to look around to see what everyone is doing.

The fact that the FAA even bothered to investigate is somewhat embarrassing and clearly a direct result of the titilllating nature of the video, rather than any real concern for what appears to have been a perfectly safe flight. I did note that there was no reference to it within the press releases on the FAA site.

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