A former American Airways flight attendant was once criminally charged Thursday and accused of the usage of a telephone to secretly file a tender woman in a aircraft loo, federal prosecutors mentioned.The woman found out the iPhone affixed to a bathroom seat, with a big sticky label in regards to the seat being damaged to partly cover it, at the Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, officers mentioned.Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was once arrested Thursday through the FBI and is charged with one rely of tried sexual exploitation of kids and one rely of ownership of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, the U.S. Lawyer’s Place of job in Boston mentioned in a observation.Prosecutors mentioned investigators additionally found out movies of 4 different minor women additionally the usage of the amenities on planes the place Thompson labored.An iPhone taped to the bottom of a bathroom seat on an American Airways flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Boston, in September.Lewis & Llewellyn LLP by way of APThompson was once in an instant withheld from provider after the incident and has no longer labored since, American Airways mentioned.“We take those allegations very critically. They don’t replicate our airline or our core project of taking good care of other people,” the airline mentioned in a observation Thursday. It added it’s been absolutely cooperating with investigators.Appearing U.S. Lawyer Joshua S. Levy known as the alleged behavior “deeply stressful” and one no traveler will have to have to stand or be focused on.”Mr. Thompson allegedly used his place to prey on and surreptitiously file blameless kids, together with unaccompanied minors, whilst in a susceptible state aboard flights he was once operating,” Levy mentioned in a observation.RecommendedThe circle of relatives of the 14-year-old sufferer at the September flight filed a lawsuit towards the airline in December.In Thompson’s iCloud account, investigators discovered movies of 4 different younger women in aircraft bathrooms, ages 7, 9, 11 and 14 years outdated, the U.S. Lawyer’s Place of job mentioned. They have been made ultimate 12 months between Jan. 26 and Aug. 23, in keeping with an FBI affidavit.On-line federal court docket information didn’t seem to listing an lawyer for Thompson. He’s being held pending an preliminary look in West Virginia, the U.S. Lawyer’s Place of job mentioned.The rate of tried sexual exploitation of kids carries a minimum of 15 and as much as 30 years in jail, if convicted, the U.S. Lawyer’s Place of job mentioned, and the opposite rate carries a minimum of 5 years and as much as twenty years in jail. Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC Information.
