WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A 36-year old American Airlines (AAL) flight attendant was arrested for covertly recording minors while they used the plane lavatory, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said.
Estes Carter Thompson III was arrested in Lynchburg for two charges with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
According to the Department of Justice or DOJ's press release, Thompson allegedly tried to record the video of minors on an American Airlines flight from Charleston to Boston on September 2, 2023.
The document cited that Thompson directed a fourteen year old girl towards an unoccupied bathroom while she was waiting for her turn outside an occupied one. However, before the girl could enter the bathroom, Thompson allegedly claimed that he had to wash his hands and also informed her that the toilet seat was broken.
After Thompson used the restroom, the minor entered it to find that there were red stickers reading 'SEAT BROKEN', 'INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT' underneath the toilet seat lid which was in an open position, the court document said.
The documents further stated that the girl found an iPhone stuck inside the toilet seat's lid. She took a photo of the phone before leaving the bathroom.
The girl then showed the picture of the concealed phone to her parents, who complained to the flight attendants and captain, who in turn reported the incident to the law enforcement.
According to the documents, the minor's father confronted Thompson, after which he locked himself in the bathroom with his phone for several minutes.
On that day, Thompson had allegedly recorded four other minors during the flight.
Authorities who took the flight attendant in custody observed that his phone might have been restored to factory settings and also allegedly found the red stickers in his suitcase.
The law enforcement officials then went on to search Thompson's iCloud account where they found recordings of minors using the plane lavatory from January to August 2023. They also found more than fifty images of an unaccompanied minor along with hundreds of AI-generated child pornography images stored on his account, the DOJ documents revealed.
The DOJ had identified all the minors and contacted their families.
An American Airlines spokesperson reacted to the news by saying 'We take these allegations very seriously'. He further commented that, '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.'
The Airlines said that following the September incident, Thompson was 'withheld from service'.
If convicted on both charges, Thompson could face 20 to 50 years in prison.
Copyright(c) 2024 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2024 AFX News
