A lawyer representing American Airlines has shockingly claimed a 9-year-old girl who’s suing the company should’ve known she was being videotaped by a creepy flight attendant while using a plane bathroom.
The airline’s attorneys made the “outrageous” suggestion in legal papers filed Monday as part of an ongoing lawsuit the girl’s family brought against the company last year, the child’s lawyer said.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, was arrested for allegedly secretly filming multiple girls between the ages of 7 and 14 over several months last year, according to federal prosecutors.
American Airlines wrote in Monday’s legal filing that the young girl should have been aware that a device was recording her as she used the lavatory.
“Any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been sustained by Plaintiff, Mary Doe, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s own fault and negligence, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device,” according to one of the various legal defenses offered by American Airlines’ lawyers.
The family of the girl is “absolutely livid” with the airline’s latest legal move, said their lawyer Paul Llewellyn.
“I was absolutely shocked and I think it’s outrageous,” Llewellyn told The Post. “The idea that American Airlines and its lawyers would blame a 9-year-old girl for being filmed, in my opinion, just smacks of desperation and depravity.
“What on Earth is American Airlines thinking by adopting such a strategy?”
One Wednesday, American blamed “outside legal counsel” and said it would walk back the claim.
“The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended this morning,” the airline told The Post in a statement.
“We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously.”
After its flight crew member’s arrest, American Airlines said it takes “these allegations very seriously.”
The 9-year-old’s family, who live in Texas, filed the lawsuit in February more than a year after she was allegedly recorded on a January 2023 flight to Los Angeles.
Thompson was arrested and charged by federal agents in January after the sick allegations came to light when a North Carolina 14-year-old girl on a separate flight noticed an iPhone was recording her after she just wrapped up in the plane’s bathroom in September 2023.
She snapped a photo of the shocking setup before leaving the lavatory.
Llewellyn said Tuesday that American Airlines didn’t suggest the North Carolina teen was culpable in a separate and ongoing lawsuit against the airline that was first filed in December.
Thompson pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Massachusetts federal court Monday to charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor, the Boston Herald reported.
Authorities found at least four instances of Thompson recording a minor while the child used the bathroom, federal prosecutors said.
In the legal brief filed Monday, American Airlines also blamed Thompson, claiming his alleged actions happened “outside the course and scope of his employment.”
