Additional Coverage:
- American Airlines backtracks after saying 9-year-old girl ‘should have known’ flight attendant was filming her in the bathroom: lawsuit (newsbreak.com)
In a disturbing turn of events, a family claims that on an American Airlines flight, their teenage daughter found a cellphone taped to the inside of a toilet seat. This incident is part of a wider controversy that has embroiled American Airlines, which is under fire for its defense in a lawsuit alleging hidden cameras.
Initially, the airline suggested that a 9-year-old girl, who was filmed without her consent in an airplane bathroom, could have noticed the cellphone that was recording her. This assertion, found in court documents, has since been retracted following public outcry, with the airline stating they did not intend to blame the child.
Paul Llewellyn, acting as the legal representative for the girl’s family among others, has expressed his astonishment at the airline’s original stance. He is involved in multiple lawsuits against American Airlines on behalf of families alleging that a former flight attendant, Estes Carter Thompson, recorded their children without consent. Thompson is currently facing serious federal accusations, including attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child sexual abuse images.
The charges against Thompson involve an incident where he allegedly secured his phone to a toilet seat to record a 14-year-old girl during a flight from Charlotte to Boston in September 2023. He has entered a plea of not guilty. In another shocking case, a family learned from FBI agents that images of their 9-year-old daughter, taken without consent during a January 2023 flight from Texas to Los Angeles, were found on Thompson’s iCloud account.
In response to the legal actions, American Airlines’ legal team controversially suggested that the 9-year-old victim “knew or should have known” about the compromised privacy in the airplane bathroom due to the visible recording device. This defense sparked outrage, leading to a statement from the victim’s mother denouncing the insensitivity of such a claim.
American Airlines has since backtracked on this position, clarifying in a statement to Business Insider that they do not hold the child at fault and are taking the allegations against the former employee seriously. They attributed the controversial defense to an error by their external legal counsel and have taken steps to correct it. Nonetheless, Llewellyn remains unconvinced by their retraction, suggesting that the damage from their initial defense strategy cannot be easily undone.