American Airlines flight attendant arrested for allegedly filming girls as young as 7 in airplane bathrooms

An American Airlines flight attendant was arrested Thursday after he allegedly recorded multiple young girls with a hidden camera as they used bathrooms aboard flights he was working.

Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was caught redhanded in September by a 14-year-old girl he attempted to secretly film in a plane restroom — which set off a federal probe that revealed videos of four prior victims.

Thompson allegedly possessed recordings of four minor female passengers — as young as 7 — using the bathroom aboard aircraft he had worked on previously, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on Thursday.

The flight attendant was working aboard an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts on Sept. 2 when he tried to film a 14-year-old girl in the restroom, prosecutors alleged.

Midway through the flight, the teenager got up to use the main cabin bathroom closest to her seat but found it occupied, prosecutors said. Thompson approached her as she was waiting and told her that the first-class bathroom was open and escorted her there. 

Before she went in, he told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken. He briefly popped in and out of the bathroom before letting her in.

Once inside, the teen noticed red stickers on the underside of the open toilet seat lid, which stated, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” and “SEAT BROKEN” was hand-written in black ink on one of the stickers, according to court documents and images obtained by The Post.

Beneath the stickers, the girl found that Thompson had hidden his cell phone to record a video. She snapped a photo of the stickers and phone before leaving — at which time Thompson immediately went back inside. 

The girl’s image shows an iPhone crudely taped to the toilet seat and covered except for the very top where the camera is located, with its bright flashlight next to it turned on.

The victim returned to her seat and showed her parents the photos, who then reported what had happened to other flight attendants. They alerted the captain who contacted authorities on the ground in Boston.

The girl’s father allegedly confronted Thompson, who then locked himself in the bathroom with his phone for about five minutes before the plane landed.

A lawsuit filed against American Airlines by the girl’s family in December claims Thompson’s “face drained of color” when confronted.

“He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing to do with this,’” the lawsuit states.

At Boston’s Logan Airport, police searched his belongings and found 11 additional red stickers like the ones he’d used to conceal the phone. Officers also checked his phone but discovered it may have been restored to factory settings.

Thompson’s iCloud account, however, was not wiped.

On the account, police found four other instances between January and August 2023 in which Thompson secretly filmed minor girls using the bathroom. The victims in these instances were 7, 9, 11 and 14 years old, prosecutors said.

Over 50 images of a 9-year-old unaccompanied minor were allegedly found in Thompson’s iCloud as well, including images of her sleeping in her seat. 

Prosecutors said that all the minor victims involved have been identified and contacted by law enforcement. 

Authorities also found hundreds of AI-generated child pornography images stored on Thompson’s iCloud account. 

Immediately after the September incident, Thompson was pulled from American Airlines service and has not worked since, the airline said.

Still, the 14-year-old victim’s family sued American Airlines in December for not immediately confiscating Thompson’s phone — allowing him to potentially “destroy evidence” during the flight after the crew had been notified.

The family’s attorney, Paul Llewellyn, told The Post on Thursday that while they were pleased to learn of Thompson’s arrest, American Airlines still has questions to answer about the incident.

“It is also shocking to hear that he allegedly preyed on at least five minors while they were flying on American,” Llewellyn said in a statement. “While the criminal justice system must now run its course against the flight attendant, it remains to be seen whether American will finally take some measure of responsibility to the families for what happened. This should never have been allowed to happen and must never happen again.”

American Airlines said that it takes “these allegations very seriously.”

“They do not reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people,” the airline told The Post in a statement. “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.”

Thompson was taken into custody in Lynchburg, Virginia on Thursday and charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, prosecutors said.

Thompson is facing a maximum of 50 years in prison, a potential lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, per federal sentencing guidelines.

He is being held ahead of his initial court appearance in the Western District of Virginia and will be scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date. 

“The deeply disturbing conduct alleged here is something no parent or child should ever have to worry about when they travel,” Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said.

Additional reporting by David Propper.