Flight Attendant Jailed 18.5 Years for Secretly Recording Young Girls in Airplane Bathroom
A former American Airlines flight attendant has been sentenced to 18.5 years in prison for secretly recording young girls inside an airplane lavatory.
Estes Carter Thompson III was sentenced on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston. After completing his prison term, he’ll also serve five years of supervised release. Judge Kobick condemned his actions as “appalling,” saying his crimes “robbed children of their innocence.”
The disturbing case came to light when a 14-year-old girl discovered a phone taped under the toilet seat lid during a flight. Authorities later uncovered that Thompson had used this method to record at least five girls, aged between 7 and 14, over a nine-month period.
Thompson was arrested in January 2024 in Lynchburg, Virginia, and later indicted on charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child s£x abuse material involving a prepubescent victim.
In court, Thompson admitted:
“What I did was selfish, perverse, and wrong.
U.S. prosecutors stated in a sentencing memo:
He robbed five young girls of their innocence and belief in the goodness of the world, leaving them with fear, mistrust, insecurity, and sadness.
Thompson will serve his sentence at FMC Butner in North Carolina, where he is expected to undergo sex offender-specific treatment. His legal team declined to comment further.
