American Airlines sued over camera taped in bathroom

A 14-year-old girl allegedly recorded in an American Airlines bathroom during a flight filed a lawsuit against the airline Friday.

The North Carolina teen claims a male flight attendant taped an iPhone to the lid of a toilet and hit record just before the girl entered the restroom during a trip from Charlotte to Boston on Sept. 2.

Her suit further claims the crew’s inaction allowed a creepy flight attendant to “destroy evidence” before authorities could seize the iPhone.

Although the girl’s family raised the alarm over the plane perv other crew members failed to promptly inform the pilot or take action, allowing the male attendant to hold onto his phone until law enforcement reached them after the plane touched down, potentially damaging the criminal probe against him, the lawsuit argues.

“[Inexplicably] American Airlines allowed the flight attendant to keep the phone and therefore he was able to delete images on it,” an attorney for the family, Paul Llewellyn said in a statement to The Post.

“It is shocking that given the disturbing reports his phone was not immediately confiscated by the pilot or other supervising cabin crew.”

Federal authorities told the family by the time they looked at the attendant’s phone, there were no “incriminating photo or video on it,” the lawsuit claims.

The flight attendant, who has not been identified, was not been arrested as a result according to the girl’s legal team.

In a response to The Post’s request for comment American Airlines said the attendant in question was “immediately withheld from service and hasn’t worked since,” and that they were fully co-operating with authorities.

The incident began when the male flight attendant approached the teen as she waited in line to use a bathroom.

He directed her to the first class bathroom, but told her he had to use it before she went in, the lawsuit states.

When he emerged, he told her the seat was broken but could be fixed later, according to the lawsuit.

She used the toilet, but when she got up she noticed an iPhone was taped to the lid with the light on, her legal team said. She took a photo of it which was included in the lawsuit as evidence.

When she left the bathroom and went to show her mother the photo of the iPhone, the male flight attendant is then said to have used that opportunity to go inside the bathroom and retrieve his phone.

The image shows an iPhone crudely taped to the toilet seat, covered except for the very top where the camera is located, with the bright camera flash light next to it illuminated. On the tape covering the phone “seat broken” has been written on.

The teenager’s mother quickly went to the same bathroom, but the phone was no longer there. She told a female flight attendant about the photo and her husband later approached the crew huddling in the back to show them all the disturbing image, according to the suit.

Then the father turned to the male flight attendant in question and told him he wanted to see his phone.

“The male flight attendant’s face drained of color,” the lawsuit states. “He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing to do with this.’ ”

The crew member walked down the aisle toward the front of the plane where he retrieved his phone while the father spoke to the rest of the workers.

“Plaintiff’s father looked down the aisle and saw the male flight attendant standing in the aisle at the front of the plane, tapping furiously on his phone,” the lawsuit alleges.

When the father again confronted the flight attendant, he was allowed to look briefly at his photos but didn’t see any images of his daughter in the bathroom, according to the lawsuit.

When the attendant’s mother later contacted the FBI for an update on the case, authorities allegedly told her they could not find anything damaging on the phone, and would try to execute a search warrant for a deeper probe of the gadget.

Authorities previously said the case was being probed. The current status of the case is unknown.

The 14-year-old has had mental health struggles since the incident, her lawyers said.

“I think she’s really angry like we are, that something like this could happen,” her father told The Post.

The family is seeking unspecified damages.

Llewellyn said he hasn’t confirmed if a recording was made, but it’s clear the crew member had “sinister intent.”

“Even that prospect that the recording is out there is deeply disturbing to the girl and her family,” he said.