OAN’s Brooke Mallory
3:37 PM – Friday, January 19, 2024
Prosecutors announced that an American Airlines flight attendant attempted to secretly record a 14-year-old girl in an airplane restroom and that he had recordings of other young girls using the restroom on the aircraft as well.
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Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, was arrested on Thursday, and he is now being charged “with 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 in Massachusetts sent a news release announcing Thompson’s arrest on Thursday in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“What Mr. Thompson is accused of doing is disgraceful, and we believe, calculated, given that this alleged conduct occurred on at least five flights,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, in a statement.
According to the release, Thompson is charged with trying to record the 14-year-old when he was a member of the crew on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, Massachusetts last year.
Thompson was “immediately withheld from service” following the incident, and an American Airlines spokesperson said in a statement that he immediately lost his job as soon as the airline was informed.
“We take these allegations very seriously,” American Airlines said in its statement. “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.”
Prosecutors say that the young girl was waiting for an occupied restroom in the main cabin when the flight attendant reportedly approached her and led her to a first-class restroom instead, which he said was available for her. The press release goes on to say that Thompson had gone into the restroom for a short while before the adolescent walked inside, claiming that he needed to “wash his hands” and that the “toilet seat was broken.”
The 14-year-old then walked inside the restroom after the flight attendant walked away, but upon opening the toilet seat cover, she saw red labels on the underside that said, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” according to the prosecution.
“It is alleged that, beneath the red stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video,” the release said. “The girl took a picture of the concealed phone and returned to her seat to show her parents,” it continued.
Prosecutors added that the parents reached out to other attendants on the flight, who in turn informed the captain of the aircraft, who then notified ground authorities.
Before the plane descended, Thompson is said to have cowardly locked himself in the restroom with his phone for up to five minutes after the girl’s father confronted him. According to prosecutors, detectives suspect that he may have been attempting to reset his phone to factory settings.
According to the release, officials discovered 11 stickers inside Thompson’s bag that matched those in the plane restroom after the plane landed at Logan International Airport in Boston.
Additionally, prosecutors say that four videos of kids “between the ages of seven and fourteen” using restrooms on airplanes were found backed up in Thompson’s iCloud account during a search that took place between January and August of 2023.
The North Carolina native is now scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston after being detained until his initial court appearance in the Western District of Virginia.
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