BOSTON (WHDH) - An American Airlines flight attendant accused of filming a teenage girl in an airplane bathroom on a flight to Boston last year has been arrested, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced.
The incident happened in September while officials said Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina was working a flight from Charlotte to Boston.
In its update Thursday, the US Attorney’s Office said Thompson was taken into custody in Virginia and charged with charges including one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
In addition to the September incident, officials said Thompson was found to have allegedly possessed recordings of four other minor female passengers in bathrooms on planes where he was working.
“The deeply disturbing conduct alleged here is something no parent or child should ever have to worry about when they travel,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy in a statement.
“Protecting children is a paramount priority for this office and we will aggressively investigate and hold accountable people who victimize children,” Levy later added.
The US Attorney’s Office outlined allegations against Thompson, saying he allegedly hid his iPhone under stickers inside a plane toilet lid in the September incident.
Officials said Thompson directed a 14-year-old girl to use the bathroom after she had been waiting to use another bathroom. Thompson then allegedly re-entered the bathroom immediately after the girl left, officials said.
The 14-year-old girl took a photo of the phone on the toilet seat and later showed the photo to her parents, who officials said reported the issue to other flight attendants.
An investigation got underway once the plane landed in Boston and officials said law enforcement soon found Thompson’s phone “may have been restored to factory settings.”
While an investigation continued, officials said authorities searched Thompson’s iCloud account and found four additional instances between January and August of 2023 “in which Thompson recorded a minor using the lavatory on an aircraft.”
The US Attorney’s Office said investigators also found hundreds of images of AI-generated child pornography and more than 50 other images of one nine-year-old unaccompanied minor in the same iCloud account, including photos of the child’s face while she was sleeping.
The US Attorney’s Office said all minor victims in this case had been identified, with their families contacted by law enforcement as of Thursday afternoon.
Now charged, officials said Thompson is expected to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
The family of the 14-year-old girl involved in the incident in September launched a lawsuit against American Airlines last year, alleging in part that the company “knew or should have known” the flight attendant in this case was a danger.
Responding to allegations, at the time, American Airlines said the flight attendant had been “withheld from service” and has not worked since the September incident.
In a new statement Thursday, the airline said “We take these allegations very seriously.”
“They don’t reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people,” American said. “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.”
An attorney for the girl involved in the September incident separately spoke to 7NEWS on Thursday, saying the family remains disappointed with the lack of response they’ve received from American.
“We first reached out to American Airlines in September, 2023,” said attorney Paul T. Llewellyn. “It’s now been several months. In those intervening months, they have not even bothered to reach out to the family.”
“I don’t think there could ever be closure from an incident like this,” Llewellyn continued. “We don’t know what happened to the images. They could be out there forevermore. So, of course, this is just the start of the criminal justice process.”
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