American Airlines retracted initial stance blaming a 9-year-old for not seeing a hidden camera
American Airlines changed its stance after blaming a 9-year-old passenger for not seeing the hidden camera in a lavatory in its initial court filing.
A former American Airlines flight attendant is accused of filming unsuspecting girls using the plane’s lavatory. The former American Airlines flight attendant taped his iPhone to the toilet seat.
The family of the 9-year-old flew from Texas to California using American Airlines not knowing that the child had been filmed by a hidden camera. However, the family was only informed by the FBI after checking the flight attendant’s phone. The family then sued the airline.
In response to the lawsuit, American Airlines claimed that it was the girl’s “own fault and negligence.” And the injuries she received “were proximately caused by (her) use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”
On Thursday, an American Airlines spokesperson said that outside lawyers working for the airline “made an error in this filing.” The airline’s spokesperson added, “We do not believe this child is at fault, and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously.”
In American Airlines’ amended document, the statement was shorter, and the accusation that the girl was at fault for her not seeing the hidden camera was deleted.
Estes Carter Thompson III is accused of filming underage passengers in the plane’s lavatory using a hidden camera. This week, he pleaded not guilty to attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse.
Thompson was caught when he tried to film a 14-year-old girl on a Charlotte, North Carolina to Boston flight. It was later discovered that Thompson also had four other recordings of underage passengers. This includes the 9-year-old girl on an earlier flight. He was arrested in January and has been under the authority’s custody since then.
His next hearing is scheduled in Boston on July 1. The charges have a 30 and 20-year maximum sentence if proven guilty and fines that can reach up to $250,000.
The 14-year-old’s family is also suing the airline.
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