An American Airlines flight attendant was arrested on Jan. 18 for allegedly attempting to secretly record a 14-year-old female passenger by taping his iPhone to the back of a airplane toilet seat in September 2023.
The flight attendant's phone was also found to have recordings of four other minor female passengers using the lavatories.
They were taken on an aircraft he had worked on previously.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of child sexual abuse images depicting a prepubescent minor, the U.S Attorney's Office in Boston said in a statement.
An American Airlines flight attendant was arrested Thursday after he allegedly recorded multiple young girls with a hidden camera as they used bathrooms aboard flights he was working.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was caught redhanded in September by a 14-year-old girl he… pic.twitter.com/lYUJxj5FlH
— Paul Kang ✡️⚖️ (@LPaulKang) January 19, 2024
What happened
Ushered victim to use the first-class lavatory
Thompson was working as a flight attendant onboard an American Airlines flight from North Carolina to Massachusetts.
Around midway through the flight, the victim got up to use the main cabin lavatory near where she was seated.
She waited outside the lavatory as it was occupied. While she was waiting, Thompson allegedly approached her and told her that the first-class lavatory was unoccupied.
He escorted her toward the first-class lavatories.
Before she entered, Thompson allegedly told her that he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken. He then briefly entered the lavatory.
Noticed phone taped to toilet seat
When it was the victim's turn to use the lavatory, she noticed that there were red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position.
The red stickers stated that the toilet seat was "inoperative catering equipment" and should be "removed from service".
The words "seat broken" were also handwritten in black marker on the stickers.
Thompson had allegedly positioned his iPhone upside down behind the red stickers, with the camera peeking out from below.
The victim used her phone to take a picture of the setup before exiting the lavatory.
Thompson had waited for her outside, and re-entered the cubicle immediately.
When the victim returned to her seat, she informed her parents of what she saw and showed them the picture as evidence.
Found incriminating evidence on iCloud
The victim's parents reported the matter to other flight attendants onboard who notified the captain. The captain then notified law enforcement on the ground.
The victim's father tried to confront Thompson, who hid by locking himself in the lavatory with his iPhone.
When law enforcement confronted Thompson at the airport, they noticed that his iPhone had been restored to factory settings.
However, subsequent searches of Thompson's suitcase revealed that he was carrying 11 "inoperative catering equipment" stickers, similar to those observed by the victim on the back of the toilet seat.
Thompson's iCloud account also contained evidence that he had filmed four other minors using the lavatory on an aircraft.
The victims depicted in the footage were allegedly seven, nine, 11 and 14, respectively at that time.
Additionally, over 50 images of a nine-year-old minor, including close up photos of her face taken while the girl was asleep, were found in his iCloud.
Hundreds of images of AI-generated child pornography were also found stored in his iCloud account.
Subsequently withheld from service
Following the incident, American Airlines issued a statement saying that it had taken the allegations very seriously, the Associated Press reported.
It said that Thompson was "“immediately withheld from service following the September 2023 incident” and has not worked since.
“They don’t 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," the statement added.
Top photo via American Airlines and Paul Kang/X