American Airlines withdraws initial filing that blamed 9-year-old passenger for being filmed in toilet
American Airlines has withdrawn its initial court filing that blamed a 9-year-old passenger for being secretly filmed in the toilet during the flight, saying that they “made an error.”
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), the airline took back its filing, saying that “they do not believe that this child is at fault” and that they take the allegations against its former crew member “seriously.”
Detailing the case which took place in January 2023, 37-year-old Estes Thompson, a former flight attendant of the airline was accused of “luring” and secretly filming girls who used the aircraft’s lavatory through his iPhone he taped on the toilet seat. One of his victims included a 9-year-old girl who flew from Texas to California with her family.
In the same year, the victim’s family sued the airline after the FBI informed them that an illegally recorded video of their daughter was found on Thompson’s phone.
In response to the lawsuit, American Airlines released a statement disputing the family's claims about their former flight attendant. They argued that any injuries that the 9-year-old suffered were her “own fault and negligence” for using a compromised lavatory, further adding she should have noticed the “visible and illuminated recording device.”
After facing backlash, the airline took back the filing, saying they do not believe the child was at fault.
The family’s legal counsel, meanwhile, found the airline’s backtracking of the statement “not credible.”
"American Airlines has clearly faced intense media and public backlash over their blaming of a 9-year-old for being filmed. To claim that they filed the ‘wrong’ [answer] is simply not credible. But the bell cannot be unwrung. They should never have taken such a position in the first place,” lawyer Paul Llewellyn said in the statement, as per ABC News.
Thompson, meanwhile, was arrested in January 2024 after a 14-year-old passenger on a September 2023 flight discovered his phone hidden in the lavatory.
He was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse, for which he recently pleaded not guilty.
The police alleged that the former flight attendant had recorded four other minor passengers who used the toilet on the same aircraft.
He is set for another hearing in federal court on July 1 and may be sentenced to a maximum of up to 30 and 20 years in prison, with fines of up to $250,000 (P14.5 million) and restitution.