CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A former American Airlines flight attendant from Charlotte pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges after he was caught attempting to record an underage girl with a hidden camera inside a plane bathroom.
The incident occurred in 2023 on a flight from Charlotte to Boston. Authorities said Estes Carter Thompson III, of Charlotte, tried to lure and secretly record a minor in the bathroom.
Once the young girl went inside the plane’s bathroom, she discovered a phone taped to the toilet, recording her. The girl’s parents confronted Thompson following the encounter.
Thompson was taken into custody upon landing in Massachusetts.
Following his arrest, the FBI found evidence on Thompson’s iCloud account showing he had recorded other minors between January and August 2023.
Thompson was accused of recording a 7-year-old on Flight 1617 from CLT to Denver on Aug. 23; a 14-year-old on a July 26 flight from CLT to Kansas City (Flight 1615); and a 9-year-old on a Jan. 23, 2023, flight from Austin to Los Angeles (Flight 2869), according to the filed complaint.
Detectives also reportedly found 272 still images of one of the children that appeared to be screenshots from the video, the FBI reported. Some of the pictures reportedly included screenshots from the video next to the child’s face.
Other photos on Thompson’s iCloud account allegedly showed photos of an unaccompanied minor in her seat on a July 9 flight from CLT to San Antonio, according to the complaint. There were also allegedly hundreds of child porn images seemingly created by artificial intelligence.
Thompson was fired from American Airlines following his arrest. In a separate civil lawsuit, the victim’s family reached a confidential settlement with American Airlines this February.
On Thursday, Thompson pleaded guilty to felony sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography. He is scheduled for sentencing on June 17 in Massachusetts.
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