American Airlines Flight Attendant Arrested For Recording Underage Girls In Airplane Bathroom

On Thursday, an American Airlines flight attendant was apprehended. This was after he supposedly used his cellphone to discreetly record young females.

Now, 37-year-old Estes Carter Thompson III, of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been charged with attempted sexual exploitation of children.

Thompson was taken into custody on Thursday, in Lynchburg, Virginia. There, he will stay until he appears in court in Virginia. He will also have to appear in federal court in Boston at some point.

The Department of Justice has noted that Thompson was a flight attendant on September 2, 2023, during an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Boston. This is when he is said to have tried to record a 14-year-old female passenger as she was in the lavatory on the airplane.

Mid-flight, the teenager had gotten up to use the bathroom in the main cabin which was occupied. As she was waiting, Thompson told her that she could use the lavatory in first-class. He then led her there.

Prior to going into the first-class lavatory, Thompson stated that he needed to wash his hands. He added that the toilet seat was broken.

When Thompson left out of the bathroom, the young girl went inside. She then observed red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat that had been in the open position. The stickers read, “inoperative catering equipment,” “remove from service,” and “seat broken.”

The DOJ say that Thompson had put his iPhone under the stickers to record the young girl.

Before leaving out, the victim took a picture of the red stickers and the iPhone she saw.

Thompson then is said to have gone in the bathroom right after her.

The girl went and showed her parents the pictures. They then told other flight attendants who then informed the captain.

The girl’s father supposedly approached  Thompson. However, he secured himself in the lavatory with his iPhone just prior to the plane landing.

When the plane arrived in Boston, Thompson was arrested.

His belongings were searched. Then, 11 “inoperative catering equipment” stickers were located in his luggage. Thompson’s iCloud account was reviewed, as well. There, four recordings of minors using the lavatory on the airplane were found. The victims were ages 7, 9, 11, and 14.

In addition to that, he also had over 50 pictures of an unaccompanied 9-year-old who was sitting and sleeping.

If he is found guilty, Thompson could receive 15-30 years in prison.