An update to the story about the American Airlines flight attendant who has been accused of surreptitiously filming a teenage girl in the lavatory of a flight: he has now been arrested and evidence of additional acts have been found on his phone.
American Airlines Flight Attendant Arrested After Evidence Emerges He Secretly Filmed FIVE Teenage Girls In Aircraft Lavatory
The trigger incident occurred last September. A 14-year-old girl rose to use the lavatory in economy class. There was a line. A male flight attendant approached her and told her she could use the first class lavatory, but he needed to wash his hands first. He remained in the lavatory for approximately one minute. Stepping out of the lavatory, he told her that the toilet seat was broken (not the toilet itself).
When she entered the lavatory, she purportedly observed red tape over the toilet seat, but then noticed a mobile camera taped on the seat. The camera (flash) light was on, suggesting it was recording. She snapped a picture of it (below).
Upon stepping out of the lavatory, the same flight attendant went back in and came out moments later.
She reported the suspicious phone to her mother, who stopped other passengers from entering the lavatory. Police were notified and met the aircraft in Boston.
The family has since sued American Airlines and the flight attendant.
> Read More: Teenage Girl Found Hidden Camera On American Airlines Aircraft Toilet (Photo)
> Read More: Family Sues American Airlines Over Flight Attendant Who Placed Camera In Lavatory To Surreptitiously Film Teenage Girl
Now, federal prosecutors have arrested the (former) American Airlines flight attendant, identified as 37-year-old Estes Carter Thompson III of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Thompson was found allegedly in possession of recordings of four additional minor female passengers who had used lavatories aboard the same aircraft (on different flights).
When investigators met Thompson in Boston, he had already restored the iPhone to factory settings, but in searching his baggage investigators found 11 additional “inoperative catering equipment” stickers identical to what had been used to secure the phone to the toilet seat lid.
Upon searching his iCloud account, they found four additional instances from the period of January – August 2023 in which a minor was recorded in the lavatory. Those victims were 7, 9, 11, and 14 years old. Police also found over 50 images of a 9-year-old unaccompanied minor who had flown with Thompson (these were not sexual in nature, but included close-ups of the kid while she was sleeping).
He has been charged with two counts, including:
- attempted sexual exploitation of children
- possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor
U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy explained:
“The deeply disturbing conduct alleged here is something no parent or child should ever have to worry about when they travel. 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.”
CONCLUSION
Estes Carter Thompson III was detained for one act of placing a mobile phone in an aircraft lavatory to record a teen minor but has now been arrested for at least five such instances as revealed by his iCloud account. American Airlines has said it is horrified by the incident and cooperating with law enforcement officials in the investigation.
image: Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority
What a dope! (and perv) Not to obvious of what’s under the Red stickers!
How is the giant light not obvious?
I wish AA gave him one last flight to Guatemala or Honduras where their prisons are like 5 star resorts. He would learn so much about filming there.
Shocked he didn’t ask for a transfer to SE Asian flights, where his deviant behavior is not only acceptable but even encouraged by certain tourism companies with a wink/wink.
And no, I don’t believe everyone that visits there just wants to F kids, it can’t be more than 80% of visitors, 85% tops.
And we are not much better as it will be determined he has a “problem” and needs help instead of rotting in a jail cell the rest of his life as he deserves.
I think he’ll get a pretty lengthy sentence for this if convicted, and rightfully so.
I suspect it will be treated as a federal case, and if they have the digital evidence that we are lead to believe they have, the conviction rate is very, very high. If convicted, he’ll spend the rest of his life on the sex offenders registry, which some offenders say is actually worse than the prison time.
This is why we need patience for a proper investigation. Thank you to law enforcement and the brave child and her parents. Now we leave it justice to remove a pervert from ever having a chance to harm another child.
His defense in court, “I am primarily on board for passenger safety.”
Matthew, I seem to recall that a significant number of readers doubted the story when you first reported it, going as far as gaslighting the teenage victim and questioning the motivations behind her mother’s outrage. Called the girl a liar and the mum a Karen. And sided with the perv in a misguided and improper application of the principle innocent until proven guilty: there was already more than enough evidence to suspect the FA had engaged in illicit conduct, in the form of witness testimony and a picture of the phone he strapped to the toilet seat. What investigators subsequently found in the FA’s iCloud account validates the accusation the girl & mum made against him.
I hope all those who made horrible comments back then come back here and acknowledge how wrong they were. Admit that facts as straightforward as these (I’ll say it again: there was even a picture of the phone strapped to the lavatory, for crying out loud!) cannot be twisted or contested. And that not everything is a conspiracy waiting to crumble in an “aha!” moment.
What I dislike about the family who brought the attention to light is that they’re coming after AA for money for something that largely didn’t cause any actual damage to their child since she avoided the camera to begin with. What is the airline’s liability here? They need to have training videos “Don’t do illegal stuff on planes?”
I come from a generation when we walked uphill in the snow to school, both ways. I remember when perverts were hanging around in shopping mall bathrooms watching us kids pee at the urinals. Discomforting but I didn’t get traumatized over it. In the meantime, we have far more damaging stuff normalized such as white male guilt, trans sexual men in bathrooms, assault in NYC subways and the like but hey, that’s PC so who cares?
Yeah, good luck outside of the western world with that.
An AA flight attendant allegedly committed a crime and is being prosecuted accordingly. Trying to somehow justify this by instead ranting on about transgender folks and bathroom use is absurd.
General population-problem sorted….
I hope this is just one bad apple in our human population. But unfortunately, it’s not. We also have thieves, murderers, drug addicts, rapists, serial killers, scammers, etc., Just be careful out there.
I agree with Polish Prince…how is this so “traumatizing” that it warrants AA being sued? We’re a nation of money grabbers who search out opportunities such as this. We’re overblowing incidents such as these which will only dilute the importance of real incidents that cause trauma. Not saying this guy shouldn’t be punished, but come on…why must the family sue?!