An American Airlines flight attendant was arrested Thursday after she allegedly filmed several young girls with a hidden camera as they used the bathroom on the flight she was working on.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was caught red-handed in September by a 14-year-old girl he tried to secretly film in an airplane lavatory — which set off a federal investigation that uncovered videos of four previous victims.
Thompson is accused of possessing recordings of four underage female passengers – as young as 7 – using the bathroom on a plane he previously worked on, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced Thursday.
The flight attendant was working on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts on September 2 when she tried to film a 14-year-old girl in the toilet, prosecutors allege.
Midway through the flight, the teenager got up to use the main cabin bathroom closest to his seat but found it full, prosecutors said. Thompson approached her while she was waiting and told her that the first class bathroom was open and escorted her there.
Before she goes in, she tells him she needs to wash her hands and that the toilet seat is broken. He went in and out of the bathroom for a moment before letting her in.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was arrested in Virginia on Thursday.
Upon entering, the teenager noticed a red sticker on the underside of the open toilet seat cover, which stated, “CATERING EQUIPMENT INOPERATIVE” and “OUT OF SERVICE,” and “DAMAGED SEAT” handwritten in black ink on one of the stickers. , according to court documents and images obtained by The Post.
Under the sticker, the girl found Thompson hiding her cell phone to record a video. He snapped a photo of the sticker and the phone before leaving — at which point Thompson quickly went back inside.
The image of the girl shows an iPhone roughly attached to a toilet seat and covered except for the top part where the camera is located, with a bright flashlight next to it turned on.
The victim returned to his seat and showed the picture to his parents, who then reported what happened to another flight attendant. They alerted the captain who contacted the authorities on the ground in Boston.
Thompson allegedly hid his phone under the toilet seat.
The girl’s father allegedly confronted Thompson, who then locked himself in the bathroom with his phone for about five minutes before the plane landed.
A lawsuit filed against American Airlines by the girl’s family in December claims Thompson “blanked” when confronted.
“He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I had nothing to do with this,’” the lawsuit says.
At Boston’s Logan Airport, police searched his belongings and found 11 additional red stickers like the one he used to hide the phone. Officers also checked his phone but found it may have been restored to factory settings.
Thompson’s iCloud account, however, was not deleted.
On that account, police found four more incidents between January and August 2023 in which Thompson secretly filmed underage girls using the bathroom. The victims in this case were aged 7, 9, 11 and 14, the prosecutor said.
American Airlines said Thompson was immediately removed from service after the incident. AFP via Getty Images
More than 50 images of unaccompanied children under the age of 9 were allegedly found in Thompson’s iCloud as well, including images of him sleeping in his seat.
The public prosecutor said that all the minor victims involved have been identified and contacted by law enforcement.
Authorities also found hundreds of AI-generated images of child pornography stored on Thompson’s iCloud account.
Shortly after the September incident, Thompson was pulled from American Airlines service and has not been employed since, the airline said.
Still, the family of the 14-year-old victim sued American Airlines in December for not immediately confiscating Thompson’s phone — allowing him to potentially “destroy evidence” during the flight after crew members had been notified.
The family’s attorney, Paul Llewellyn, told The Post on Thursday that while they are glad to learn of Thompson’s arrest, American Airlines still has questions to answer about the incident.
“It was also shocking to hear that he allegedly preyed on at least five minors while they were flying in America,” Llewellyn said in a statement. “Although the criminal justice system must now go smoothly against the flight attendants, it remains to be seen whether America will finally take some responsibility to the families for what happened. This should not be allowed to happen and cannot happen again.”
American Airlines said that it takes “these allegations very seriously.”
“It does not reflect our airline or our core mission of taking care of people,” the airline told The Post in a statement. “We have fully cooperated with law enforcement in their investigation, as nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and our team.”
Thompson was arrested in Lynchburg, Virginia on Thursday and charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography depicting pre-adolescent minors, prosecutors said.
Thompson faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison, a possible lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
He was held pending his initial court appearance in the Western District of Virginia and is scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
“The highly disruptive conduct alleged here is something no parent or child should worry about when they travel,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy.
Additional reporting by David Propper.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
