Austin family sues American Airlines & flight attendant accused of secretly filming girl
Booking photo for Estes Carter Thompson III. (Courtesy: Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority)
An Austin family sues American airlines and one of their flight attendants — accusing him of secretly filming their nine-year-old daughter in the bathroom of a flight out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport last year. Estes Carter Thompson III is also facing federal criminal charges.
There are four other victims, including another Austin girl, who Thompson is accused of secretly recording in the airplane lavatory. The lawsuit filed in Travis County district court on Tuesday seeks damages after Thompson is charged in a Boston federal court with possession of pornography depicting a prepubescent minor and attempted child exploitation. He is accused of secretly recording young girls while working as a flight attendant. American Airlines is also named in the suit.
Paul Llewellyn is the lead attorney. “This wasn’t a one-off occurrence. The fact that this could occur five times on their flights. They are absolutely responsible for this,” he said.
The Federal Bureau of investigation’s Boston office is investigating. According to the US Attorney in Massachusetts. They say Thompson was caught red-handed trying to record a 14-year-old on a flight from North Carolina to Boston. The documents say Thompson told the 14 year old the toilet was broken, and stepped inside the lavatory, letting the door shut behind him. He came out a few minutes later, and that is when the teen realized a cell phone taped to the toilet was very suspicious. She took a picture of it before making an outcry.
FBI agents went on to find the images of four more girls on Thompson’s cloud account — including two girls who were later located in Austin. One of the Austin families is suing right now. “Literally, they got a knock on the door in December from the FBI. They did not know that their daughter had been filmed. She did not know that she had been filmed,” Llewellyn said. The family was headed to California for a gymnastic competition and a visit to Disneyland when their daughter was allegedly filmed.
Llewellyn also says American Airlines bears some responsibility. “We put our safety or wellbeing in the care of airlines, and the idea that you can be secretly filmed, children can be secretly filmed by using the restroom. I have no doubts whatsoever there were red flags about this flight attendant,” he said.
An Austin family is suing American Airlines and a flight attendant who is accused of secretly filiming their 9 year old daughter on a flight out of ABIA
I did email American Airlines corporate communications team regarding Thompson but got no reply by deadline. Federal authorities arrested Thompson several weeks ago, and according to the US Attorney’s office in Boston, he remains in federal custody. It is also worth noting that the FBI allegedly found some AI-generated child porn on Thompson’s cloud account.
Llewellyn expects the North Carolina lawsuit to go to trial later this year, and Thompson will be appear in federal court in Massachusetts and Virginia, on the criminal charges.
