Ex-American Airlines flight attendant sentenced for filming girls using restroom
A former American Airlines flight attendant is facing over 18 years in federal prison for filming five girls as they used an airplane restroom.
According to a news release from Lewis & Llewellyn LLP, a San Francisco-based law firm representing one of the girls in a lawsuit against American, Estes Carter Thompson III was sentenced Wednesday to 18.5 years followed by five years of supervised release.
Thompson was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston.
During the approximately hour-long sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick called Thompson’s crimes “appalling.”
Kobick also referred to the girls in her statement, saying “their innocence has been lost.”
Fort Worth-based American Airlines did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Thompson said during the hearing that his actions were selfish, perverse and wrong.
“The word ‘sorry’ is not enough and never will be,” he said.
What happened
In March, Thompson pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual exploitation of children and possessing child pornography depicting a prebubescent minor.
In September of 2023, a 14-year-old girl who was on a flight from Charlotte to Boston to visit her brother, got up to use a restroom. A male flight attendant told her to use the restroom in first class although she was first in line for the restroom in coach.
The girl complied with Thompson’s request.
He then told the girl to wait because he had to wash his hands before cleaning up a mess in the restroom.
When the girl went inside of the restroom, she saw a red sign saying “toilet broken” and red stickers on the toilet seat.
When she finished using the restroom, she saw a cell phone taped to the toilet seat with the flash turned on, and the lens was visible.
The girl took a photo of the cell phone and told her mother, who in turn, warned other passengers.
Thompson was also accused of filming other under-age girls using the restroom.