Ex-flight attendant sentenced to nearly 2 decades for recording girls in plane bathrooms
A former American Airlines flight attendant who secretly recorded young girls while they used the lavatory on flights was sentenced to nearly two decades in prison on July 23, federal prosecutors said.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 38, received a sentence of 18 and a half years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release on July 24. The flight attendant was arrested and charged in January 2024 after authorities said a 14-year-old girl found his concealed recording setup on a toilet seat in the lavatory in September 2023.
Further investigation revealed that Thompson, of Charlotte, North Carolina, had recorded several other young girls using the bathroom on flights he had worked between January and August 2023, prosecutors said. Investigators discovered the recordings on Thompson's iCloud account, in which he also stored hundreds of AI-generated images depicting child sexual abuse, according to prosecutors.
In a statement following Thompson's arrest, American Airlines said his employment was terminated after the September 2023 flight. At the time, the airline said it was fully cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation and that Thompson did not "reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people."
Earlier this year, Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
"Mr. Thompson took advantage of his position of trust as a flight attendant to exploit innocent children – directing them to an aircraft bathroom he had set up to record them and then revisiting those videos for his own sexual gratification," U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said in a statement. "In so doing, he shattered five children’s sense of safety and trust in the world around them, leaving them instead with fear, mistrust, insecurity, and sadness."
Flight attendant had a secret recording setup on the toilet seat
Thompson was working as a flight attendant on Sept. 2, 2023, on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Boston when he attempted to secretly record a video of a 14-year-old girl as she used the lavatory, according to charging documents.
Midway through the flight, the girl got up to use the main cabin bathroom nearest to where she was seated with her parents. The girl was waiting for the bathroom in the main cabin when Thompson approached and escorted her to the first-class lavatory that he said was unoccupied, the documents state.
But before the girl entered the bathroom, Thompson told her that he needed to wash his hands and that the bathroom's toilet seat was broken, according to the documents. After Thompson exited the bathroom, the girl noticed red stickers on the underside of the open toilet seat lid, the documents said.
The stickers read "INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT" and "REMOVE FROM SERVICE," with "SEAT BROKEN" handwritten on one of the stickers, according to the documents. The girl then found an iPhone recording a video with its flashlight on underneath the red stickers.
The girl used her phone to take a picture of the recording setup before returning to her seat, at which time Thompson immediately re-entered the bathroom and removed his iPhone, the documents said. The girl showed her parents the photo of what she saw in the bathroom, prompting them to report it to other flight attendants onboard, who notified the captain.
"When confronted by the minor’s father and other flight staff, Thompson locked himself in the lavatory with his iPhone and restored the device to factory settings – wiping all content from the phone," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
After the flight landed at Logan International Airport in Boston, the documents said law enforcement, who had been notified on the ground, examined Thompson's iPhone. Law enforcement also searched Thompson’s suitcase and discovered 11 "INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT" stickers.
Search of iCloud account revealed more victims
A search of Thompson's iCloud account further revealed that he recorded four other young girls between the ages of 7 and 14 using bathrooms on American Airlines flights between January and August 2023.
"Each of the videos appeared to be taken in a similar fashion, in which Thompson attached his iPhone to a spot above a toilet seat," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "For two of the videos, Thompson was found to have taken and stored 272 screenshots and 98 screenshots, respectively."
Investigators also found over 50 images of another child, a 9-year-old, who traveled as an unaccompanied minor on a flight he worked. They included close-ups of the child's face as she slept and of her clothed buttocks.
All the victims involved in the investigation have been identified, and their families were contacted by law enforcement, prosecutors said.
Reports: American Airlines settles lawsuit with victim's family
Following the September 2023 flight, the family of the 14-year-old girl filed a lawsuit against American Airlines over the incident.
The suit claimed that the airline "knew or should have known the flight attendant was a danger" and alleged that other crew members on the flight failed to confiscate Thompson's cellphone, allowing him to delete potential evidence, television station WCNC reported. American Airlines later settled with the family in February, according to the television station.
In May 2024, the airline came under scrutiny after its lawyers argued that a 9-year-old had acted negligently when she was secretly recorded in an airplane lavatory, Paste BN previously reported. American Airlines later backtracked on the filing, saying there was an error.
“Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing. The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended," an American Airlines spokesperson said in a statement to Paste BN at the time. "We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously."
Contributing: Eric Lagatta and Ahjané Forbes