Former American Airlines flight attendant sentenced to 18.5 years for filming minors in aircraft lavatory

A former American Airlines flight attendant who secretly filmed underage girls in an aircraft lavatory has been sentenced to 18.5 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. The sentencing was handed down on Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Julia Kobick, who described the crimes as “appalling,” noting that the young victims’ “innocence has been lost” due to his actions.

Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was arrested in January 2024 and charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography. The charges stem from an incident aboard a September 2023 American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Boston, where Thompson used his iPhone to record a 14-year-old female passenger inside the first-class lavatory.

According to court documents, Thompson had lured the minor to the first-class lavatory under the pretense that it was available, briefly entered it himself, and then left red stickers on the toilet lid, concealing his iPhone in recording mode. The victim discovered the phone, informed her parents, and reported the incident to crew members. During the confrontation, Thompson locked himself in the lavatory for several minutes before the flight landed at Boston Logan Airport.

Investigators later found that Thompson’s iPhone appeared to have been restored to factory settings. A search of his belongings revealed stickers matching those used in the lavatory setup. A forensic investigation of his iCloud account uncovered four additional incidents between January and August 2023, where Thompson had allegedly recorded minors in lavatories on other flights.

Authorities also found over 50 images of a nine-year-old unaccompanied minor, taken before takeoff and while sleeping, and hundreds of AI-generated child pornography images stored in his cloud account.

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse through coordinated efforts at the federal, state, and local levels.

American Airlines previously issued a statement saying:

“We take these allegations very seriously. They do not reflect our airline or our core mission of caring for people. We have been fully cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation, as there is nothing more important than the safety and security of our customers and team.”