American Airlines is being criticized for its legal team’s response to a civil lawsuit against the company and one of its flight attendants, who is accused of secretly recording five girls in airplane bathrooms.
American Airlines is blaming a 9-year-old girl for being filmed by one of their flight attendants in the plane’s bathroom.
Estes Carter Thompson is accused of recording multiple girls by taping his phone to plane toilet seats.
In a new court filing, American Airlines says the young girl should have known that there was a recording device on the toilet.
“Defendant would show that any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been sustained by Plaintiff, Mary Doe, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s own fault and negligence,” AA said.
“She knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”
Thompson is accused of having videos of girls aged 7, 9, 11 and 14.
Federal prosecutors said that on Sept. 2, 2023, Thompson video-recorded or attempted to surreptitiously video-record a 14-year-old female passenger with a cellphone as she used the aircraft lavatory while he was working as a flight attendant onboard American Airlines Flight 1441 from Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Boston Logan International Airport.
As a result of an investigation into that incident, prosecutors said videos of four additional girls using aircraft lavatories were found on Thompson’s iCloud account that were recorded between January 2023 and August 2023. Authorities said those four girls were 7, 9, 11 and 14 years old.
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NEW: American Airlines is blaming a 9-year-old girl for being filmed by one of their flight attendants in the plane's bathroom.
Estes Carter Thompson is accused of recording multiple girls by taping his phone to plane toilet seats.
In a new court filing, American Airlines… pic.twitter.com/WOO79AZ8jC
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 21, 2024
In a statement, the 9-year-old girl’s mother said, “Instead of taking responsibility for this awful event, American Airlines is actually blaming our daughter for being filmed. How in good conscience could they even make such a suggestion? It both shocks and angers us. American Airlines has no shame.”
The parents of the 14-year-old girl on that Boston-bound flight also reacted to American’s legal response, saying, “This callous legal position shocks us. Our hearts go out to the Texas family.”
In a statement shared with NewsCenter 5 on Sept. 2, 2023, American Airlines said it was taking the incident that happened on Flight 1441 from Charlotte to Boston very seriously. But so far, the families of the girls who were allegedly recorded by Thompson said the airline has not apologized for the incidents or contacted them.
