The airplane game, also known as the Plane Game, was a style of pyramid scheme in the 1980s first active in North America and then in Western Europe. The common version of the system involved joining an "airplane" by paying a "pilot" to become one of eight "passengers". Passengers started at the fourth step from being paid. Already on the airplane were four "flight attendants" who were a step ahead, and two "co-pilots" next in line behind the pilot. Once a pilot collected $12,000 from passengers to retire, the group split into two "airplanes", with each co-pilot becoming the pilot of the new airplane, taking half the participants and promoting everyone a level. Bringing in new passengers sped up everyone's progression towards retiring as a pilot. However, the structure of the scheme result