Teen Girl Says Flight Attendant Taped Camera to Toilet in Airplane Bathroom
A family is suing American Airlines after their teenage daughter allegedly found a camera taped to the lid of the airplane lavatory’s toilet.
Earlier this month, an American Airlines flight attendant was arrested after an incident took place in one of the airplane bathrooms involving “a juvenile, a phone, and a flight attendant.” Today, details on the specific allegations were made public by the juvenile’s family after they claim the company has not responded to their inquiries, WCVB Boston reports.
“On September 2nd, while on American Airlines flight 1441 from Charlotte to Boston, our 14-year-old daughter was targeted and victimized by a child predator who filmed her while using the bathroom,” the family says in a public statement that was issued by their attorney, Paul Llewellyn.
The family is accusing a flight attendant of not only guiding the teenage girl to the first-class bathroom from coach but also telling her that the bathroom lid was broken and to ignore it.
“There is no doubt in our minds this was perpetrated by the lone male flight attendant on board, who directed her to use the first-class bathroom from coach, entered just before her ‘to wash his hands’—then telling her the seat was broken and ‘not to worry about it’—and reentering directly after she left,” Llewellyn continues.
The family says that this sequence of events had been corroborated by other passengers. After using the toilet, the teenage girl realized that the warning tape — which appears to be the kind officially issued by the airline — was obscuring a camera.
“After using the toilet our daughter realized a largely obscured iPhone had been affixed to the back of the toilet seat to record her, and courageously took a picture of this with her own phone. Very specific features on the hidden phone perfectly matched the one subsequently recovered from the flight attendant by law enforcement, and airline representatives confirmed the official stickers used to secure and hide the phone would not have been accessible to anyone other than crew,” the statement continues.
As reported by AP in early September, Massachusetts State Police had escorted a flight attendant from the American Airlines jet in response to a complaint that a camera had allegedly been placed in the bathroom.
“We take this matter very seriously and are fully cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation, as safety and security are our highest priorities,” American Airlines said in response, allegedly the last time the airline said anything of the incident since the teenage girl’s family says it had not heard back from the company in the weeks that followed.
“These events have left our daughter—and the entire family—shocked and profoundly disturbed. It is hard to fathom that a flight attendant — charged with ensuring our safety and security, and to whom the flying public is legally bound to obey — appears to have targeted and exploited our child in obtaining child pornography during a flight. That someone like this was allowed to be in that position of trust—and could follow through with such reckless behavior unchecked—should shock every parent.”
The FBI is apparently involved in the investigation but declined to comment according to WCVB.
Image credits: Paul T. Llewellyn
