to behave while crewing on the company’s Gulfstream G550.
Male flight crew were told to present themselves clean-shaven
in a uniform of Abercrombie polo shirts, boxer briefs, flip-flops,
and gloves (black for when handling silverware and white for
laying the table)...and wearing a “spritz” of the retailer’s own
brand of aftershave.
There is also an infamous story about the time a group of
clothing executives was flying back from a fashion show in
Europe. A female model was also on board. It was Halloween
time. The plane was festooned with little gourds and minia-
ture pumpkins. “These guys were all fucking hammered,” says
someone familiar with the incident, “and were throwing the
pumpkins at each other on the plane. And I guess they threw
one and hit the model in the face and cut her eye. They trashed
the airplane.” He says the model sued for the damage done to
her face. The jet owner sent the executives a bill for $80,000.
Epstein’s plane, like his town house, was oversexed kitsch.
“It was really cheesy with the zebra skins and the leopard pil-
lows,” says Jim Dowd, one of Epstein’s substitute former pilots.
“He had, like, this big round bed with mirrors on the walls.”
One pilot told me the story of how he was flying a private jet
when Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell hit the jackpot for bad
behavior. Epstein had been invited to travel on a friend’s
jet from Palm Beach back to New York City. First, he arrives
20 minutes late. (Strike one.) Then, he showed up with Max-
well, who hadn’t been invited. (Strike two.) The jet had a bed-
room for the billionaire to sleep on overnight trips to Europe.
About halfway into the two-hour flight, the pilot went back to
check on his boss, to see if he needed anything. He didn’t see
Epstein or Maxwell. But he saw that the jet’s owner was plenty
pissed. “They’re in the back fucking with the doors closed,”
the pilot says. “Epstein and Ghislaine. And you can hear them.
I mean, really? It’s a two-hour flight.” (Strike three.)
Forstmann liked to send his empty Gulfstream jet over to
Luton Airport, in London, to pick up Princess Diana, then sepa-
rated from Prince Charles, and bring her back to Westhamp-
ton, on Long Island, to be with him. On the way to London,
Forstmann’s otherwise empty jet would have on it the two- Hugh Hefner
and Barbi Benton
on his private
jet, Big Bunny,
in London, 1970. - Jeffrey Epstein’s
private plane
(center), in Palm
Beach, 2018. - Bill Clinton in
Mariehamn,
Åland, in July.
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2
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICK GLEIS(2), EMILYMICHOT/TNS/NEWSCOM(5), STEFAN ÖHBERG/NYA ÅLAND/SHUTTERSTOCK (6), TERRY O'NEILL/ICONIC IMAGES/GETTYIMAGES (3),FREDPROUSER/REUTERS(1), V. THOMPSON/FOX PHOTOS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES (4)DECEMBER 2019