Federal officials in Virginia arrested an American Airlines flight attendant accused of recording multiple young girls in airplane lavatories this week. According to US-based news media outlets, federal officials arrested 36-year-old Estes Carter Thompson III who was caught red-handed while attempting to film a 14-year-old girl in the plane’s lavatory by the teenager herself.
The young girl found the iPhone affixed to a toilet seat hidden with the help of a large sticker that said the seat was broken in order to hide the device. The accused was charged with sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
The authorities also found that the accused was in possession of videos of four other minor girls aged 7, 9, 11 and 14. They were also captured when these victims were using the lavatories of the plane they were flying in and where the accused was the attendant.
Estes, the accused, was working aboard an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts in September 2023 when he attempted to film the teenager while she was in the lavatory. He approached the teenager while she was waiting outside an occupied bathroom in the main cabin. He then guided her to an unoccupied first-class bathroom. Before she entered, Estes told the girl that he needed to wash his hands and said the toilet seat was broken and entered the bathroom before her.
Upon the Estes’ exit from the restroom, the victim entered and saw red stickers beneath the toilet seat lid with handwritten messages saying “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT,” “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” and “SEAT BROKEN.”
It was when she turned to flush she found an iPhone peeking from behind the stickers.
The 14-year-old took a photo of the iPhone and stickers before leaving and immediately rushed to her parents. She also noticed that Thompson allegedly entered the bathroom right after her.
After her parent’s saw the photo, the girl’s mother rushed to the lavatory only to find the stickers and iPhone missing.
The girl’s father confronted the victim and said that he saw “the colour drain out of his face”.
Thompson was immediately removed from American Airlines’ service. He hasn’t worked since.
“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,” American Airlines said in a statement.
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