BOSTON — A former American Airlines flight attendant has pleaded guilty to filming a teenage girl who was using the airplane bathroom on a Boston-bound flight in 2023 and to having recordings of four other young girls using airplane bathrooms.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement on Thursday.
Thompson also pleaded guilty to having recordings of four additional minor female passengers -- one of them as young as 7 years old -- using bathrooms aboard aircraft he had worked on previously, Foley said.
U.S. District Court Judge Julia Kobick scheduled sentencing for June 17.
Thompson was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in April 2024. He was arrested in January 2024 in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Prosecutors said he taped his iPhone to the toilet to record a teenage girl who was using the airplane bathroom on a Boston-bound flight on Sept. 2, 2023.
On that day, while working as a flight attendant onboard an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Boston, Thompson videorecorded or attempted to surreptitiously video-record a 14-year-old female passenger as she used the airplane bathroom, Foley said.
Midway through the flight, the girl got up to use the main cabin bathroom nearest to her airplane seat.
When she arrived to the bathroom, it was occupied. After the girl had been waiting a short time, Thompson approached her, told her that the first-class bathroom was unoccupied and escorted her toward first class, Foley said.
Before she entered that bathroom, Thompson told her that he needed to wash his hands and that the bathroom’s toilet seat was broken, and he briefly entered the bathroom.
After Thompson exited the bathroom, the girl entered the bathroom and saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, that stated, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” and “SEAT BROKEN” was hand-written in black ink on one of the stickers, Foley said.
Underneath the red stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, Foley said.
The girl used her own phone to take a picture of the red stickers and the concealed iPhone she found in the bathroom before exiting, at which time “Thompson allegedly re-entered it immediately,” prosecutors said.
According to court documents, when the girl returned to her seat, she told her parents about what she saw and showed them the picture. The victim’s parents reported the matter to other flight attendants onboard who notified the flight captain, who in turn notified law enforcement on the ground.
The victim’s father confronted Thompson who, shortly thereafter, locked himself in the bathroom with his iPhone for three to five minutes before the flight’s descent, prosecutors said.
Parents of girl on Boston flight say attendant put camera in bathroom to record their daughter
When the flight arrived at Logan International Airport, law enforcement saw that Thompson’s iPhone may have been restored to factory settings, prosecutors said.
A subsequent search of Thompson’s suitcase was found to contain 11 “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” stickers, like those seen by the girl on the back of the toilet seat, Foley said. A search of Thompson’s iCloud account revealed four additional times between January and August 2023 in which Thompson recorded a minor using the bathroom on an aircraft.
The minor victims depicted in the recordings were 7, 9, 11 and 14 years old at the time.
Investigators also found over 50 images of a 9-year-old unaccompanied girl in Thompson’s iCloud. The images included photos taken while the young girl was seated in her seat pre-flight, and close-ups of her face while sleeping.
Prosecutors said that hundreds of images of AI-generated child pornography were also found stored on Thompson’s iCloud account.
For the charge of attempted sexual exploitation of children, Thompson faces a sentence of at least 15 years and up to 30 years in prison.
For the charge of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, Thompson faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Both charges also provide for at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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