American Airlines is being sued by the family of a little 9-year-old girl who claims that one of the flight attendants filmed her when she was in the restroom.
Estes Thompson, 37, was arrested for allegedly videotaping several girls between the ages of 7 and 14 over several months last year, according to prosecutors.
But attorneys for American Airlines astonishingly blame the little girl for being videotaped.
“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 that American Airlines’ lawyers offered.
Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
To say that the family didn’t take this excuse very well is an understatement.
“I was absolutely shocked and I think it’s outrageous,” the family lawyer Paul Llewellyn told The New York 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?”
After their flight crew member’s arrest, American Airlines said that it takes “these allegations very seriously.”
The 9-year-old’s family, who lives 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.
Pervert American Airlines employee tapes phone to toilet seat to take videos of young girls.
American Airlines: “It’s clearly the 9 year old girl’s fault.”
What lawyer thought this line of defense would be beneficial to American? PAY THE GIRL. pic.twitter.com/50dr2BAC50
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) May 21, 2024
“Instead of taking responsibility for this awful event, American Airlines is actually blaming our daughter for being filmed,” the girl’s mother said in a statement. “How in good conscience could they even make such a suggestion? It both shocks and angers us. American Airlines has no shame.”
It’s bad enough that attorneys for American Airlines are blaming the little girl for being filmed. They’re trying to wash their hands of any crimes that Thompson committed because at the time he was being a pervert, he wasn’t actually working as a flight attendant for the airline.
In American Airlines’ recent court filing, the airline’s attorneys also wrote: “Defendant Thompson was not acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the alleged wrongful conduct against Plaintiff… this Defendant (American) cannot be held vicariously liable for Defendant Thompson’s alleged actions that occurred outside the course and scope of his employment.”
In other words, since it wasn’t in his job description to record little girls going to the bathroom, American Airlines cannot be held accountable for the flight attendant’s actions.
Sheesh.