Airline blames 9-year-old girl for incident in flight attendant’s bathroom

A lawyer for American Airlines claimed that a 9-year-old should have known she was being filmed by a flight attendant while using an airplane’s bathroom. the New York Post Reports.

The claim was made in legal documents filed on Monday (May 20) as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the girl’s family against the airline. Estes Carter Thompson IIIThe 37-year-old from Charlotte was arrested for allegedly filming several girls between the ages of 7 and 14 over a period of several months in 2023, according to federal prosecutors.

However, American Airlines claimed in the court filing that the 9-year-old should have known that a device was recording her at the time of the incident.

“Any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been suffered by Plaintiff Mary Doe were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s own fault and negligence and were proximately caused by Plaintiff using the damaged toilet which she knew or should have known.” “contained a visible and illuminated recording device,” says one of the various legal defenses offered by American Airlines’ lawyers.

Paul LlewellynA lawyer representing the girl’s family said they were “completely angry” about the airline’s claim.

“I was absolutely shocked and find it outrageous,” Llewellyn said the New York Post“The idea that American Airlines and their lawyers would blame a 9-year-old girl for being filmed just smacks of desperation and depravity in my opinion.

“What the hell is American Airlines thinking with such a strategy?”

The 9-year-old victim’s parents claim the incident occurred during a flight to Los Angeles in January 2023, before another incident that led to his arrest.

“It felt like we were living in a nightmare when the FBI showed up on our doorstep and told us that our daughter had been secretly filmed by an American Airlines flight attendant,” the victim’s family previously said in a statement the daily mail.

“Since then, our daughter has struggled with fear and anxiety. We are doing everything we can to support them during this traumatic time,” they added. “An important part of our family’s healing is ensuring that the flight attendant and American Airlines are held accountable for what happened to our daughter.” We hope this lawsuit is the first step in ensuring that something that has never happened to another family.”

Thompson was arrested Jan. 18 and charged with attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor. The former flight attendant allegedly filmed a 14-year-old while he was working on the crew of a flight from Charlotte to Boston in September 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts said in a news release.

Thompson allegedly approached the girl as she waited in the main cabin for a busy toilet, whereupon he escorted her to a first-class toilet before telling her he needed to wash his hands and claiming the toilet seat was broken. Shortly thereafter, the girl entered the bathroom and noticed red stickers on the bottom of an open toilet seat lid that read “NOT WORKING CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “TAKE OUT OF SERVICE,” according to prosecutors.

Authorities found 11 stickers similar to the ones the girl discovered in Thompson’s suitcase, and a search of his iCloud account found four recordings of children between the ages of seven and 14, including the 9-year-old victim, all of them the bathroom used on airplanes, allegedly filmed between January and August 2023.

The 37-year-old was “immediately removed from duty” and has not worked for American Airlines since the incident, the company said in a statement CNN after his arrest.