Remark in this storyCommentAdd in your stored storiesSaveAn American Airways flight attendant used to be arrested Thursday after government say he secretly recorded or tried to report movies of ladies whilst they used the toilet on 5 flights closing 12 months.An investigation started after a 14-year-old woman reported him to the Massachusetts State Police after an incident on a September 2023 flight from Charlotte to Boston. The Federal Bureau of Investigation stated he possessed equivalent movies of 4 different ladies between the ages of seven and 14.The place of job of the U.S. Lawyer for the District of Massachusetts stated in a information unlock that Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, used to be taken into custody in Lynchburg, Va., and can make an preliminary court docket look within the Western District of Virginia. Thompson, a Charlotte resident, will later seem in a federal court docket in Boston, the place the circle of relatives of the woman aboard the September flight reported him to police.Thompson faces one depend of tried sexual exploitation of kids and one depend of ownership of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor. He may just obtain 15 to 30 years in jail for the primary rate and 5 to twenty years for the second one. He additionally faces the potential of a life-time of supervision, a effective of $250,000 and restitution to the sufferers.“What Mr. Thompson is accused of doing is disgraceful, and we imagine, calculated, for the reason that this alleged behavior passed off on a minimum of 5 flights,” Jodi Cohen, particular agent accountable for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Department, stated within the unlock. “This situation will have to make it crystal transparent that the FBI takes crimes aboard airplane and the sexual exploitation of kids severely. For those who’ve been the sufferer of against the law aboard an airplane or have witnessed one happen, we ask you to document it to each your flight team and the FBI.”The North Carolina circle of relatives who reported Thompson in Boston filed a lawsuit in opposition to American Airways on Dec. 1 alleging the corporate “will have to have identified the flight attendant used to be a threat” and that different team contributors didn’t confiscate his telephone midflight, permitting him time to break proof.“We take those allegations very severely,” American Airways stated in a remark Friday. “They don’t mirror our airline or our core challenge of taking care of other people. We have now been absolutely cooperating with legislation enforcement in its investigation, as there may be not anything extra necessary than the security and safety of our consumers and group.”American stated Thompson used to be “in an instant withheld from provider following the September 2023 incident and hasn’t labored since.”A 14-year-old woman recognized in court docket filings as Minor A used to be touring along with her circle of relatives on a Sept. 2 flight from Charlotte to Boston. In keeping with an FBI affidavit, the woman used to be looking ahead to a rest room when Thompson approached her and advised her she may just use the only in top quality. Thompson advised her he needed to wash his fingers earlier than she entered and spent what looked as if it would the woman to be an strangely very long time inside of. Thompson additionally warned the woman the bathroom seat used to be damaged, the report says.In keeping with the FBI affidavit, when the woman entered, she noticed purple stickers at the underside of the bathroom lid categorized “INOPERABLE CATERING EQUIPMENT.” After she used the bathroom, the report says, she spotted the stickers have been concealing an iPhone with a mild became on. She took {a photograph} of the telephone and the stickers and in an instant reported what took place to her mom. By the point her mom were given as much as investigate cross-check the rest room, the stickers and the telephone have been reportedly long past.The lady’s father faced Thompson and two different flight attendants concerning the incident, the affidavit says. The opposite flight attendants tried to assist the daddy assessment the contents of Thompson’s telephone to de-escalate the placement earlier than Thompson took it again. The flight attendants reported the incident to the captain and notified legislation enforcement at the floor. Thompson had time to fasten himself within the loo for 3 to 5 mins, the affidavit says.When Massachusetts state soldiers interviewed Thompson in Boston, he gave them consent to look his iPhone. They discovered no report of calls, texts, footage or movies at the telephone. Thompson used to be allowed to go away, however government retained his telephone and his suitcase.A seek of the suitcase discovered 11 of the similar purple stickers that Minor A photographed on the bathroom. A forensic seek of Thompson’s telephone through the FBI later discovered it have been reset to manufacturing facility settings at the day of the flight.Upon reviewing Thompson’s iCloud account, the FBI used to be no longer ready to find video of Minor A within the loo. The FBI discovered 4 different movies within the account that have been filmed between January and August closing 12 months on an iPhone 12, the similar type as Thompson’s telephone.The movies contained metadata appearing they have been created from time to time when Thompson used to be operating on American Airways flights. The 4 minor sufferers in those recordings have been 7, 9, 11 and 14. The youngsters have been recognized to the FBI through their folks.To determine “different proof of sexual hobby in kids,” the FBI affidavit says Thompson’s iCloud account additionally contained 50 photographs of a 9-year-old unaccompanied minor from every other flight. There have been additionally masses of pictures of kid pornography that seemed to were created through a synthetic intelligence web page.
