(CNN) – American Airlines is citing error for a legal filing blaming a 9-year-old girl for being secretly recorded in a plane bathroom last year.
The incident happened during a January 2023 flight from Austin, Texas, to Los Angeles. The 9-year-old used the airplane toilet, in which a recording device had allegedly been placed by a former flight attendant.
Estes Carter Thompson, 37, is the former employee named in the lawsuit. He is facing charges after federal investigators say he secretly recorded several minors in bathrooms on different American Airlines flights last year.
In the 9-year-old girl’s case, lawyers for the airline initially argued she was at fault because she used a bathroom “she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device,” according to CNN.
The airline has since requested its law firm change the legal response filing, which they claim was made in error by an outside insurance company.
“We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously,” said the airline in a statement.
The attorney for the girl’s family believes American Airlines only changed its filing due to public backlash, calling the company’s legal strategy “depraved” and “shocking.”
“They should never have taken such an outrageous position in the first place,” he told CNN in a statement.
Copyright 2024 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. Gray News contributed to this report.
