American Airlines flight attendant accused of filming girls in plane bathroom arrested

A former American Airlines flight attendant accused of secretly recording multiple juvenile girls in 2023 while they used airplane bathrooms was arrested Thursday, federal prosecutors said.

The flight attendant, Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, N.C., was arrested in Lynchburg, Va. and will be transferred to Boston at a later date to appear in federal court.

Thompson was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography after investigators found evidence that he recorded video footage of at least five different girls as they used the lavatory on American Airlines flights, the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Massachusetts said.

“The deeply disturbing conduct alleged here is something no parent or child should ever have to worry about when they travel," Joshua S. Levy, the acting U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts said in a statement. “Everyone – especially children – should feel safe and secure as airline passengers, and parents should feel comfortable traveling with their children."

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Documents: Thompson concealed iPhone on toilet seat

According to charging documents, Thompson was working as a flight attendant on Sept. 2 on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, N.C. to Boston when he attempted to record a video of a 14-year-old girl as she used the lavatory.

Midway through the flight, the teenager got up to use the main cabin bathroom nearest to where she was seated with her parents. The bathroom was occupied, and Thompson approached the girl and instead escorted her to the first-class lavatory toward the front of the aircraft, the documents state.

But before the girl could enter the bathroom, Thompson told her that he needed wash his hands and fix the lavatory's broken toilet seat, the complaint says.

When the teenager entered the bathroom, prosecutors said she noticed red stickers on the underside of the open toilet seat lid affixed with handwritten notes reading, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT,” as well as “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” and “SEAT BROKEN.” Taped beneath the red stickers, the girl noticed a concealed iPhone recording a video, according to the charging document.

After the girl took a photo of the display and exited the bathroom, Thompson immediately re-entered it, the complaint states.

Search of iCloud account reveals more juvenile victims

The teenager returned to her seat and showed her parents the photo of what she saw in the bathroom, prompting them to report it to other flight attendants, who notified the captain.

But when the girl's father confronted Thompson, prosecutors said the man locked himself in a bathroom with his iPhone for several minutes before the flight landed. Law enforcement who had been notified on the ground approached Thompson after the aircraft's arrival at Logan International Airport in Boston and examined his phone, determining that it had been restored to factory settings, court documents state.

Law enforcement searched Thompson's suitcase, where court documents state that they found 11 "INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT" stickers. A search of his iCloud account further revealed that Thompson recorded four other young girls between the ages of 7 and 14 using lavatories between January and August 2023 on American Airlines flights, prosecutors claimed.

The search also uncovered hundreds of images depicting child sexual abuse that had been generated by artificial intelligence, as well as more than 50 images of a 9-year-old girl who flew as an unaccompanied minor on an American Airlines flight, some of which Thompson took close up as she was sleeping, according to the complaint.

In a statement after Thompson’s arrest, American Airlines said that it takes “these allegations very seriously," adding that his employment was terminated in September.

“They don’t reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people,” the airline 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.”

Thompson faces decades in prison, lifetime of supervision

This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative established in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. A partnership with the Department of Justice, the initiative marshals federal, state, and local resources to rescue victims and track down and prosecute adults who exploit children.

In this case, Thompson faces up to 30 years in prison if found guilty of attempted sexual exploitation of children, and up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the child pornography possession charge, prosecutors said. Both charges could also include up to a lifetime of supervision upon release and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston field office, said in a statement that Thompson had “repeatedly targeted unsuspecting children to sexually exploit them for his own gratification.”

"What Mr. Thompson is accused of doing is disgraceful,” Cohen said in a statement. “This case should make it crystal clear that the FBI takes crimes aboard aircraft and the sexual exploitation of children seriously."

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: American flight attendant Estes Thompson jailed in bathroom recordings