Flight Attendant Who Filmed Girls in Airplane Lavatory with Hidden Phone Pleads Guilty

The former American Airlines flight attendant who secretly recorded several minors in airplane bathrooms pleaded guilty to two felony charges on Thursday, March 6, according to a Massachusetts District Attorney Leah Belaire Foley’s news release.

Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, was first arrested in January 2024 and indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in April 2024. The subsequent investigation later revealed that his iCloud also had hundreds of AI-generated images depicting child sexual abuse.

More than a year after his arrest, Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

Ahead of his Thursday, March 6 court appearance, authorities previously recovered videos from his iCloud account showing minors aged 7, 9, 11, and 14 being secretly recorded in the airplane restroom, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Thompson’s activity, which spanned from January through September 2023, was uncovered on Sept. 2, 2023, when a 14-year-old girl discovered his phone was secretly recording her during a flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Boston. 

At the time, Thompson allegedly convinced the 14-year-old girl to use the facilities in the first-class section of the plane and escorted her there. 

He allegedly entered the bathroom before her and told her that the toilet seat was broken. When she entered the bathroom, the alleged victim saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid that indicated the toilet seat was broken. Thompson’s iPhone was allegedly taped and hidden under the stickers so that he could record video, per D.A. Foley’s news release. 

“The minor victim informed her parents of what she saw and showed them the picture upon returning to her seat. The victim’s father confronted Thompson, who then locked himself in the lavatory with his iPhone for three to five minutes prior to the flight’s descent,” per the news release. “Upon the flight’s arrival at Boston’s Logan Airport, law enforcement observed that Thompson had restored his iPhone to factory settings.”

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It was then discovered that the Sept 2, 2023 incident was the fifth of the year. He also had over 50 images of a nine-year-old unaccompanied minor in his iCloud. “The images included photos taken while the minor victim was seated in her seat pre-flight and close-ups of her face while sleeping,” per the news release. All the involved victims have been identified and law enforcement has contacted their families. 

Thompson was arrested in January 2024 in Lynchburg, Va., and remained in federal custody since. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, June 17.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.