A troubling discovery last September on a Boston-bound plane received an unexpected response from American Airlines in a legal filing.
In an effort to not be held financially liable in a civil lawsuit in Texas, attorneys for American Airlines appeared to blame a 9-year-old girl for allowing herself to be secretly recorded by a flight attendant’s phone in an airplane bathroom.
In a filing this week, the airline’s attorneys say the harm to the child was caused by her “own fault and negligence,” and by her “use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”
The girl’s mother told NBC10 Boston the accusation both shocked and angered her, as the Boston Herald first reported.
“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,” she said in a statement.
American Airlines released a statement denouncing the filing: “Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing. The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended this morning. We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously. Our core mission is to care for people — and the foundation of that is the safety and security of our customers and team.”
The disturbing allegations involving American Airlines first came to light last fall when a 14-year-old girl went to use the bathroom on her Sept. 2 flight from Charlotte to Boston. According to investigators, 37-year-old flight attendant Estes Thompson III instructed the girl to use the first-class bathroom and escorted her there.
The girl told authorities that before she entered the bathroom, Thompson told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken. After he left, she entered the bathroom and saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position. Beneath the stickers, Thompson had allegedly concealed his iPhone to record a video. The girl used her phone to take a picture before returning to her seat.
When federal authorities got involved, they allegedly found videos on Thompson’s phone of four other girls — ages 7, 9, 11 and 14 — as well as dozens of photos of a 9-year-old unaccompanied minor.
Thompson, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was arrested in January in Lynchburg, Virginia, and indicted last month. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual exploitation and possession of images of child sexual abuse in federal court in Boston. He’s being held without bail on those charges.
Thompson is also a defendant in the civil lawsuit out of Texas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report