How A Girl's Alertness Caught Flight Attendant Filming In Plane's Restroom?

On Thursday, a 36-year-old flight attendant from American Airlines was arrested for filming young girls in aeroplane bathrooms. The FBI has charged him with sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornographic material depicting young girls yet to hit puberty. He is currently facing 50 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Read on to learn more about this shocking case.

Flight Attendant Charged with Filming Young Girls in Airplane Restroom

The accused, Estes Carter Thompson III, was caught red-handed in September 2023 by a 14-year-old girl whom he tried to film in the restroom. As per reports, on September 2, 2023, Thompson was onboard a plane travelling from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, Massachusetts. He found the 14-year-old girl waiting outside an occupied bathroom in the main cabin. He approached her and escorted her to a first-class bathroom. Before she entered, Thompson went inside, saying that he wanted to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken.

When the girl entered the bathroom, she noticed red stickers underneath the toilet seats with handwritten warnings that stated "INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT," "REMOVE FROM SERVICE," and "SEAT BROKEN."  When she turned to flush the toilet, she noticed an iPhone peeking outside the stickers. The girl took a photo of the iPhone and the stickers. As soon as she got out of the bathroom, Thompson entered inside.

How Young Girl's Swift Action Helped In Catching The Flight Attendant

The girl went and showed the pictures to her parents. Her mother then rushed towards the bathroom, but the iPhone and the stickers were no longer there. The father confronted the flight attendant, Thompson, but he locked himself inside the bathroom for five minutes before the plane landed. The parents alerted the captain, who called the ground authorities in Boston. 

The law enforcement on the grounds of Boson immediately confronted Thompson and asked him to show his phone. However, they couldn't find anything as the phone was restored to the factory setting. But on searching through the iCloud, it was revealed that Thompson had filmed and taken pictures of young girls in the toilet at least four times before the September incident. The four other girls whose videos were on the phone were ages 7, 9, 11, and 14.

There were 50 photos of a 9-year-old girl taken during a flight. The photos included close-ups of her when she was sleeping and of her back. The phone also had AI-generated child sex abuse material. The red stickers that the 14-year-old girl talked about were also found in Thompson's bag.

The Airline's statement

Since this incident, Thompson has not worked and was pulled from the airline. The American Airlines issued a statement condemning the flight attendant's conduct and said, "We take these allegations very seriously. They do not 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."