Family of girl, 9, sues ex-American Airlines flight attendant over secret recordings

An American Airlines flight attendant arrested for allegedly recording a 14-year-old girl in a lavatory has been accused of doing the same to a 9-year-old – whose family is suing him and the airline, according to a report.

Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was arrested Jan. 18 after being accused of recording several young girls with a hidden camera as they used the restrooms on his flights.

He was charged after allegedly being caught redhanded in September by a 14-year-old girl who noticed an iPhone taped to the toilet on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston. Her family has filed a lawsuit against the airline.

A federal investigation revealed four prior victims, including a 9-year-old girl from Texas, the Daily Mail reported.

That girl’s parents claim Thompson recorded the child during a January 2023 flight to Los Angeles, where they were going to Disney World and a gymnastics meet, according to the outlet, which cited the second lawsuit.

The FBI reportedly recovered images from his iCloud that allegedly showed the girl’s face, buttocks and genitals.

“It felt like we were living in a nightmare when the FBI showed up on our doorstep to tell us that our daughter had been secretly filmed by an American Airlines flight attendant,” her family told the Daily Mail in a statement.

“Since then, our daughter has struggled with fear and anxiety. We are doing everything we can to support her during this traumatic time,” they told the outlet.

“An important part of our family’s healing is making sure that the flight attendant and American Airlines are held accountable for what happened to our daughter. We hope that this lawsuit is the first step in making sure nothing like this ever happens to another family.”

Thompson has been charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor in connection with the case of the 14-year-old.

During her flight, she got up to use a nearby lavatory but found it occupied so Thompson told her the first-class bathroom was open and escorted her there, prosecutors said.

He told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken – then briefly popped in and out of the restroom before letting her in, according to officials.

The girl noticed red stickers on the underside of the open toilet seat lid that stated, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” according to court documents and images obtained by The Post.  “SEAT BROKEN” was hand-written in black on one of the stickers.

She then snapped a photo of the stickers and a cell phone she noticed beneath them – after which Thompson immediately went back inside. 

Her photo showed an iPhone crudely taped to the seat and covered except for where the camera is located, with its flashlight turned on. Her parents alerted other crew members, who notified the captain of the incident.

The girl’s dad allegedly confronted Thompson, who then locked himself in the bathroom with his phone before the plane landed in Boston, where police found 11 additional stickers and discovered his phone may have been restored to factory settings.

But authorities searched through his iCloud account and found four other instances between January and August 2023 in which Thompson allegedly recorded minor girls aged 7, 9, 11 and 14, according to the report.

Authorities also discovered hundreds of AI-generated child porn images stored on Thompson’s iCloud account, officials said.

The 14-year-old girl’s family sued American Airlines in December for not immediately confiscating Thompson’s phone — allowing him to potentially “destroy evidence” after the crew had been notified.

“He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have nothing to do with this,’” the lawsuit states.

Thompson faces a maximum of 50 years in prison, a potential lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, according to federal sentencing guidelines.

Immediately after the September incident, Thompson was pulled from service and has not worked since, the airline said.

It was not immediately clear if Thompson has a lawyer representing him. The Post has reached out to American Airlines about the latest lawsuit.

In a previous statement, the company said it took “these allegations very seriously.”

“They do not reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people,” the airline told The Post in the statement. “We have been fully cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation, as there is nothing more important than the safety and security of our customers and team.”