CHARLOTTE, N.C. — American Airlines asked a judge to drop them from a federal lawsuit involving a flight attending accused of recording a 14-year-old girl in the bathroom on a flight out of Charlotte last year.
The airline says it's not liable for acts or crimes of its employees. The request to dismiss is related to the arrest of Estes Carter Thompson III, who was arrested in Virginia last month. Thompson is accused of placing an iPhone on a toilet seat to record children using the bathroom. He was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child pornography depicting a minor by the FBI.
The teen allegedly found Thompson's phone taped to the back of a toilet set on a flight to Boston on Sept. 2. The family claimed Thompson advised the girl to use the first-lass bathroom after he came out. Thompson allegedly told her the seat was broken but said it was nothing to worry about. He then went into the bathroom after the girl finished, according to the family's lawsuit.
“These events have left our daughter — and entire family — shocked and profoundly disturbed,” the family wrote in a statement.
Lawyers representing the family said American "knew or should have known" that Thompson was a danger. The suit also claims Thompson's coworkers allowed him to destroy evidence when he was confronted by the girl's family. The airline pulled Thompson from flights after the incident.
A search of his iCloud account revealed four additional instances between January and August 2023 in which Thompson recorded a minor using the bathroom on a plane, the FBI said. The victims in those incidents were 7, 9, 11 and 14 years old at the time. That search also found hundreds of AI-generated child pornography images, according to the FBI.
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