American Airlines Flight Attendant Arrested For Allegedly Filming Girls In The Bathroom

On Thursday, a flight attendant for American Airlines was arrested and criminally charged after he was accused of using a phone to record a young girl in a plane lavatory.

The attendant, Estes Carter Thompson III, was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.

He allegedly tried to film a girl on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston. 

After the allegations surfaced, American Airlines suspended Thompson from his services.

“We take these allegations very seriously,” the airline said in a statement. “They do not reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people. We have been fully cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation, as there is nothing more important than the safety and security of our customers and team.”

During the incident, Thompson approached the girl while she was waiting for the bathroom in the main cabin and escorted her to the first-class cabin. Thompson entered the lavatory before her, saying he needed to wash his hands. When he came back out again, he said the toilet seat was “broken.” 

The girl found red stickers on the open toilet seat that concealed an iPhone. The girl then returned to tell her parents, who then informed several flight attendants. Law enforcement was alerted and Estes was arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Authorities found 11 stickers similar to the one in the bathroom in Thompson’s suitcase.

Thompson’s iCloud account was searched and found four similar recordings of children using the airplane’s lavatory

“Mr. Thompson allegedly used his position to prey on and surreptitiously record innocent children, including unaccompanied minors, while in a vulnerable state aboard flights he was working,” acting U.S. attorney Joshua S. Levy said of Thompson’s actions in a statement.

Thompson is due to appear in federal court in Boston today.