The family of the girl called the airline's later legal move "outrageous".
A lawyer representing American Airlines has claimed that the 9-year-old girl who's suing the carrier should have known she was being videotaped by a flight attendant while using a plane bathroom. According to the New York Post, the airline's attorney made the shocking suggestion in legal papers filed Monday as part of an ongoing lawsuit the girl's family brought against the carrier last year.
The flight attendant, Estes Carter Thompson III, was arrested on January 18 after accusations that he covertly recorded several young girls during flights, leading to a significant legal fallout for American Airlines. The initial charges stemmed from an incident in September 2023, where a 14-year-old girl discovered an iPhone taped to the toilet during a flight from North Carolina's Charlotte to Boston. Subsequently, the girl's family filed a lawsuit against the airline.
On Monday, American Airlines wrote in a legal filing that the young girl should have been aware that a device was recording her as she used the bathroom on the plane. "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," the lawyer representing American Airlines said, as per the Post.
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The family of the girl called the airline's later legal move "outrageous". The family's lawyer Paul Llewellyn said that his clients are "absolutely livid".
"I was absolutely shocked and I think it's outrageous," Mr Llewellyn told the outlet. "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?" he added.
The flight attendant was arrested by the FBI earlier this year and charged with sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to the two counts in federal court in Boston.
In the legal brief filed Monday, the airlines blamed Thompson, claiming his alleged actions happened "outside the course and scope of his employment".
Notably, authorities found at least four instances where Thompson allegedly recorded minor girls aged 7, 9, 11, and 14. Officials also discovered hundreds of AI-generated child pornography images stored on Thompson's iCloud account.