A former American Airways flight attendant was criminally charged Thursday and accused of utilizing a telephone to secretly file a younger lady in a aircraft bathroom, federal prosecutors mentioned.
The lady found the iPhone affixed to a rest room seat, with a big sticker concerning the seat being damaged to partially conceal it, on the Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, officers mentioned.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was arrested Thursday by the FBI and is charged with one depend of tried sexual exploitation of kids and one depend of possession of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Boston mentioned in an announcement.
Prosecutors mentioned investigators additionally found movies of 4 different minor ladies additionally utilizing the services on planes the place Thompson labored.
Thompson was instantly withheld from service after the incident and has not labored since, American Airways mentioned.
“We take these allegations very significantly. They don’t replicate our airline or our core mission of caring for individuals,” the airline mentioned in an announcement Thursday. It added it has been absolutely cooperating with investigators.
Performing U.S. Legal professional Joshua S. Levy known as the alleged conduct “deeply disturbing” and one no traveler ought to should face or be involved about.
“Mr. Thompson allegedly used his place to prey on and surreptitiously file harmless kids, together with unaccompanied minors, whereas in a susceptible state aboard flights he was working,” Levy mentioned in an announcement.
The household of the 14-year-old sufferer on the September flight filed a lawsuit in opposition to the airline in December.
In Thompson’s iCloud account, investigators discovered movies of 4 different younger ladies in aircraft bathrooms, ages 7, 9, 11 and 14 years outdated, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned. They had been made final 12 months between Jan. 26 and Aug. 23, in keeping with an FBI affidavit.
On-line federal court docket data didn’t seem to record an lawyer for Thompson.
He’s being held pending an preliminary look in West Virginia, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned.
The cost of tried sexual exploitation of kids carries not less than 15 and as much as 30 years in jail, if convicted, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned, and the opposite cost carries not less than 5 years and as much as 20 years in jail.