Source: US FBI
BOSTON – A former American Airlines flight attendant was sentenced yesterday for surreptitiously recording minor female passengers as they used aircraft lavatories.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 38, of Charlotte, N.C., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Julia E. Kobick to 18.5 years in prison and five years of supervised release. In March 2025, Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
“Mr. Thompson took advantage of his position of trust as a flight attendant to exploit innocent children – directing them to an aircraft bathroom he had set up to record them and then revisiting those videos for his own sexual gratification. In so doing, he shattered five children’s sense of safety and trust in the world around them, leaving them instead with fear, mistrust, insecurity and sadness,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley. “It is our hope that this sentence provides at least some space for the victims and their families to heal.”
“Estes Carter Thompson thought he had a no-fail plan to sexually exploit children for his own gratification, until a brave 14-year-old girl thwarted his plan, and worked with us to put an end to his deviant behavior,” said Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “This flight attendant’s disgraceful actions robbed five young girls of their innocence and caused significant pain and trauma that will likely be felt by these victims and their families for years to come. No sentence can ever make up for that but know the FBI and our partners are committed to protecting our most vulnerable from predators like him.”
“When this disturbing incident came to our attention, Troopers assigned to Logan Airport took immediate action to ensure the safety of the victim and secure material evidence that became the basis of the federal case. Their diligence and proactive collaboration with FBI Boston stopped this individual from continuing a sustained pattern of child exploitation,” said Colonel Geoffrey Noble. “I commend the young victim and her family for teaching her to speak up when she recognized that something wasn’t right. The Massachusetts State Police remains committed to partnering with the US Attorney’s Office and all our federal partners to ensure criminals in these cases face justice.”
On Sept. 2, 2023, while working as a flight attendant onboard an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, N.C. to Boston, Mass., Thompson video-recorded or attempted to surreptitiously video-record a 14-year-old female passenger as she used the lavatory. Specifically, before the minor victim entered the lavatory, Thompson surreptitiously attached his iPhone to the underside of the toilet seat lid using red “INOPERATIVE EQUIPMENT” stickers and set the phone’s camera to record with the flashlight illuminated. After the victim exited the lavatory, Thompson immediately entered the lavatory and removed his iPhone. The minor victim reported this to her parents who then reported it to other flight attendants onboard. When confronted by the minor’s father and other flight staff, Thompson locked himself in the lavatory with his iPhone and restored the device to factory settings – wiping all content from the phone.
Upon the flight’s arrival at Boston’s Logan Airport, Thompson’s suitcase was found to contain 11 “INOPERATIVE EQUIPMENT” stickers, like those observed by the minor victim on the back of the toilet seat.
A search of Thompson’s iCloud account revealed four additional instances in which Thompson recorded minor females using the aircraft lavatory on flights he had worked between January and August 2023. The four minor victims depicted in the surreptitious recordings were six, nine, 11 and 14 years old at the time. The videos were taken aboard American Airlines flights from Charlotte, N.C. to Denver, Co.; Charlotte, N.C. to Kansas City, Mo.; Orlando, Fla. to Charlotte, N.C.; and Austin, Texas to Los Angeles, Calif. Each of the videos appeared to be taken in a similar fashion, in which Thompson attached his iPhone to a spot above a toilet seat and at an angle that captured the minor victims’ genitalia as they used the lavatory. For two of the videos, Thompson was found to have taken and stored 272 screenshots and 98 screenshots, respectively.
Also found on Thompson’s iCloud were over 50 images of a nine-year-old child who had travelled as an unaccompanied minor on a flight he worked. The images included close-ups of the minor’s face as she slept, and images focused on the child’s clothed buttocks as she de-planed.
Additionally, hundreds of AI-generated images depicting child sexual abuse were also found stored on Thompson’s iCloud account.
All minor victims involved in this matter have been identified and their families have been contacted by law enforcement.
U.S. Attorney Foley, FBI SAC Docks and MSP Colonel Noble made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elianna J. Nuzum of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.