Former Flight Attendant Pleads Guilty to Recording Minors in Airplane Bathrooms

Estes Carter Thompson III admitted to secretly filming five young girls and possessing AI-generated child sexual abuse images, facing up to 30 years in prison.

• Estes Carter Thompson III, a former American Airlines flight attendant, pleaded guilty to charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography.
• Thompson secretly recorded a 14-year-old girl using a lavatory during a flight from Charlotte to Boston in September 2023, concealing his phone under stickers on the toilet seat lid.
• Investigators uncovered videos of four additional minors, aged 7 to 14, recorded on previous flights, as well as over 50 images of a 9-year-old girl and hundreds of AI-generated child sexual abuse images in his iCloud account.
• Thompson faces a potential sentence of 15 to 30 years for attempted sexual exploitation and up to 20 years for possession of child pornography, with sentencing scheduled for June 17, 2025.
• American Airlines stated Thompson was removed from service immediately following the discovery and has not worked for the airline since his arrest.

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