The girl is one of several children that Estes Carter Thompson III allegedly photographed in bathrooms while working as a flight attendant. He was arrested earlier this year and is next due to appear in court on July 1.
American Airlines lawyers wrote that the harm allegedly done to the child was caused by Thompson’s own “negligence and omission” in using a restroom “that was in an unsafe condition and that she knew or should have known contained a visible, illuminated recording device,” according to documents provided to The Washington Post by a law firm representing Thompson’s family. American Airlines lawyers also argued that the airline cannot be held responsible or liable for Thompson’s alleged actions.
The child’s mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the alleged crimes, said in an interview that she was “disgusted and appalled” by the airline’s initial response to the lawsuit. She said she was shocked when the family’s lawyer called to inform her about the lawsuit being filed.
“My first question was, ‘Are they really blaming my daughter?'” she said. “I was furious.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of cases that have garnered widespread attention since Thompson’s arrest in January, and the airline faced immediate criticism.
“The attached defense does not represent our position and we have instructed it to be revised this morning,” American Airlines said in a statement. “We do not believe the child was at fault and take allegations involving a former team member very seriously.”
A lawyer representing the girl’s family said the airline’s statement was not credible.
“They’re just saying they were wrong after getting a lot of press backlash,” said Paul T. Llewellyn, a partner at the California law firm Lewis & Llewellyn, “which is what caused them to change their position.”
Llewellyn criticized American Airlines’ legal response as “outrageous and corrupt.”
Thompson is awaiting trial in federal custody on charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography depicting a minor. He was arrested in January and charged in a criminal complaint and indicted by a federal grand jury in April.
Authorities began investigating after a 14-year-old passenger on a flight between Charlotte and Boston last September noticed an iPhone hidden in a bathroom that Thompson had directed her to use. Investigators searched Thompson’s iCloud account and found four instances earlier that year of him allegedly recording passengers between the ages of 7 and 14 using the airplane bathroom, as well as multiple images of an unaccompanied minor as young as 9.
The family of the 14-year-old boy who found the phone has also filed a lawsuit against American Airlines.
In the lawsuit involving a 9-year-old girl, the lawyers write that their client and her family flew from Texas to Los Angeles for a gymnastics meet and a trip to Disneyland in January 2023. Nearly a year after the trip, the FBI notified the family that images and videos of their daughter had been found on Thompson’s iCloud account, according to the complaint.
The family is suing Thompson and American Airlines in Texas court, alleging negligence on the part of the airline and seeking more than $1 million in damages. The lawsuit says the girl is “nervous, nervous and fearful in her interactions with others” and has difficulty trusting authority figures such as teachers.
The mother said she had to tell her daughter about her initial suspicions because the FBI warned her they might need to question her, but she didn’t want her to hear about the airline’s response to the lawsuit.
“How can a child comprehend all this and the fact that there are adults blaming her for what a man did?” she said. “She can’t even comprehend it.”
The girl had recently had to fly again for sports and hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, her mother said. She asked if the flight attendant in question was on the plane or if a male flight attendant was working there.
When the girl had to go to the bathroom, “we had to walk with her and check beforehand,” her mother said. “That’s our new normal.”
