Ex-flight attendant sentenced for secretly recording young girls in plane bathrooms
A 38-year-old North Caroline man who worked as a flight attendant was sentenced to 18 and a half years in prison on Wednesday for secretly recording young girls as they used plane bathrooms, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said.
Estes Carter Thomspon III , of Charlotte, pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor in March, Foley's office said in a statement.
On Sept. 2, 2023, while working on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Boston, Thompson recorded, or attempted to record, a 14-year-old girl as she used the bathroom. Before the girl entered the bathroom, Thomspon attached his iPhone to the underside of the toilet lid using red stickers that read "inoperative equipment," Foley's office said.
Thompson then set the camera to record with its flash illuminated. When the girl left the bathroom, Thompson immediately entered and removed his phone. The girl reported his behavior to her parents, who reported it to other flight attendants.
When confronted by the girl's father and other staff on the flight, Thompson locked himself in the bathroom and wiped his phone.
When the flight arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston, Thompson's suitcase contained 11 "inoperative equipment" stickers like the ones the girl saw on the back of the toilet seat.
Red stickers underneath the toilet seat lid said "INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT," "REMOVE FROM SERVICE," and in hand-written black ink, "SEAT BROKEN." Underneath the red stickers was Thompson's concealed iPhone recording a video.United States Attorney Leah Foley's office
Investigators searched Thompson's iCloud account and found four additional times where he recorded young girls using the plane bathroom on flights he worked between January and August 2023. The girls depicted in the videos were six, nine, 11 and 14 at the time, Foley's office said.
The videos were taken on American Airlines flights from Charlotte to Denver, Colorado; Charlotte to Kansas City, Missouri; Orlando, Florida to Charlotte; and Austin, Texas to Los Angeles, California. Each one appeared to be taken in a similar way, with Thompson attaching his phone to a spot above the toilet seat at an angle that captured the girls' genitals as they used the bathroom, prosecutors said.
Thompson took 272 screenshots of one video and 98 of another, Foley's office said.
Investigators also found more than 50 photos of a nine-year-old girl who had flown as an unaccompanied minor on a flight Thompson worked. The images included close-ups of the girl's face as she slept and images focused on her butt as she deplaned, Foley's office said.
Hundreds of AI-generated images depicting child sexual abuse were also found in Thompson's iCloud, according to the statement.
All minor victims involved in Thompson's case were identified and law enforcement contacted their families, Foley's office said.
In addition to the prison time, Thompson will serve five years of supervised release.
"Mr. Thompson took advantage of his position of trust as a flight attendant to exploit innocent children – directing them to an aircraft bathroom he had set up to record them and then revisiting those videos for his own sexual gratification," Foley said in the statement. "In so doing, he shattered five children's sense of safety and trust in the world around them, leaving them instead with fear, mistrust, insecurity and sadness."
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