American Airlines flight attendant faces child porn charge after allegedly filming minors in airplane bathrooms, DOJ says

By Sarah Dewberry, CNN

(CNN) — An American Airlines flight attendant faces federal child pornography charges as he is accused of trying to secretly film a 14-year-old girl in an airplane bathroom and having videos of other young girls using lavatories aboard the planes he worked on, prosecutors said.

Estes Carter Thompson III was arrested Thursday in Lynchburg, Virginia, and charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced in a news release.

“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.

Thompson is accused of attempting to film the 14-year-old while he was working on the crew of a September 2023 flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, according to the release.

After the incident, Thompson was “immediately withheld from service” and hasn’t worked for American Airlines since, the company said in a statement.

“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.”

During the incident, the flight attendant allegedly approached the girl as she waited for an occupied bathroom in the main cabin and escorted her to a first-class bathroom, which he said was available, according to the release. Before the teen entered the lavatory, Thompson allegedly said he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken and briefly went into the bathroom, prosecutors said.

After the flight attendant left the bathroom, the girl entered to find red stickers on the underside of the open toilet seat lid which read, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” prosecutors said.

“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 said.

The parents notified other flight attendants, who then told the plane’s captain, who in turn alerted law enforcement on the ground, prosecutors said.

After being confronted by the girl’s father, Thompson allegedly locked himself in the bathroom with his phone for up to five minutes before the plane’s descent, and police believe he may have restored his phone to factory settings, prosecutors said.

After the plane arrived at Boston’s Logan International Airport, authorities found 11 stickers similar to those in the bathroom inside Thompson’s suitcase, the release said.

A search of Thompson’s iCloud account also revealed four recordings of children between the ages of seven and 14 using the restroom on an aircraft, which were filmed between January and August last year, according to prosecutors.

Thompson, who is from North Carolina, will remain in custody until his initial court appearance in the Western District of Virginia and will later appear in federal court in Boston.

CNN has been unable to determine if Thompson has an attorney.

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