Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office
Estes Carter Thompson III, the former American Airlines flight attendant who confessed to secretly filming underage girls in plane bathrooms has been sentenced to 18 1/2 years in prison on Wednesday (July 23), the New York Post reports.
Thompson, 37, pleaded guilty to recording five under age girls during a span of nine months, as well as collecting AI-generated child pornography, earlier this year. The former flight attendant issued an apology during his sentencing, admitting that his actions were "selfish, perverse and wrong."
Boston U.S. District Court Judge Julia Kobick called his behavior "appalling" and noted that the victims' "innocence had been lost" in the incidents. Federal prosecutors said that the suspect was “recording videos of the children’s bodies in one of their most private moments, and then storing, editing, and revisiting those videos, all for his own sexual gratification,” adding that Thompson, “robbed five young girls of their innocence and belief in the goodness of the world and the people they would encounter in it, instead leaving them with fear, mistrust, insecurity, and sadness,” in a sentencing memorandum obtained by Boston.com.
Thompson was arrested on January 18, 2024, for an incident involving a 9-year-old girl. The former flight attendant allegedly approached the girl as she waited for an occupied bathroom in the main cabin, at which point he escorted her to a first-class bathroom before saying he needed to wash his hands and claiming that the toilet seat was broken.
The girl entered the bathroom shortly after and noticed red stickers on the underside of an open toilet seat lid stating, “INOPERATIVE CATERING EQUIPMENT” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” according to prosecutors. Authorities found 11 stickers similar to the ones spotted by the girl inside Thompson's suitcase and a search of his iCloud account found four recordings of children between the ages of seven and 14, including the 9-year-old victim, all of whom were using the bathroom on airplanes, reported to be filmed between January and August 2023.