Former American Airlines flight attendant sentenced after secretly recording teen in bathroom on NC flight

BOSTON (AP/QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A former American Airlines flight attendant who pleaded guilty to secretly recording a teen in a plane bathroom will spend over 18 years (222 months) in prison.

Estes Carter Thompson III of Charlotte pled guilty back in March to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.

Thompson had secretly recorded a 14-year-old girl using the airplane bathroom and had recordings of four other girls.

According to investigators, the girl got up to use the main cabin lavatory during a Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte to Boston, but it was occupied. Thompson told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there. She later told investigators that before she entered the bathroom, Thompson told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken.

After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said, with the words written in black ink and all caps, “inoperative catering equipment,” “remove from service,” and “seat broken.” Beneath the stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, investigators said. The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed her iPhone before leaving.

American Airlines said following his arrest that Thompson was “immediately withheld from service” and hadn’t worked for the airline since the phone was discovered.

Prosecutors also allege that their investigation turned up hundreds of images in Thompson’s iCloud account of child sexual abuse generated through artificial intelligence, as well as the images of the other four girls captured on earlier flights using the aircraft lavatories. They were ages 7, 9, 11 and 14.

Court documents say he waived his right to appeal the sentence because of the guilty plea.

Following his prison sentence, Thompson will serve five years of supervised release.