A North Carolina teenage girl’s family sued American Airlines on Friday, alleging that a male flight attendant taped an iPhone to a toilet seat to record the girl as she used the toilet mid-flight, according to several reports.
The 14-year-old girl was waiting to use an economy-class bathroom while aboard a Sept. 2 Charlotte-to-Boston American Airlines flight when the flight attendant allegedly directed her to use a first-class cabin toilet, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The attendant allegedly went in first, saying he needed to wash his hands, and afterward, he told the girl the toilet seat was broken but that it was no problem, the outlet noted.
“We’re going to get it fixed when we get back to Charlotte,” the attendant allegedly said in part, per The Washington Post.
The girl then reportedly used the toilet but noticed as she attempted to flush that an iPhone was taped to the lid, The Washington Post noted. The girl, “shocked and scared,” then reportedly photographed the setup. An alleged photograph of the toilet seat shows the iPhone’s flash-enabled camera peeping from underneath red stickers, reading, “SEAT BROKEN” and “REMOVE FROM SERVICE,” per The Washington Post and AP reports. (RELATED: Man Allegedly Records Children Outside Elementary School From His Car)
When the girl left the restroom, the flight attendant allegedly went in. The girl reported the matter to her parents, and her father challenged the flight attendant, per The Washington Post report. The girl’s father says he witnessed the flight attendant allegedly “tapping furiously” on the phone’s screen before handing it to the girl’s father, who reportedly could not find any suspicious photo or video on the phone.
American Airlines let a flight attendant delete ‘evidence’ after filming a teen girl with a hidden camera in an airplane bathroom, new lawsuit alleges https://t.co/KzoMZAVDTx
— Insider Transportation (@insidertranspo) December 1, 2023
The FBI reportedly could not arrest the man because they could not find incriminating images on his phone, the AP noted. However, American Airlines reportedly said the man has not worked since the incident, The Washington Post reported.
The girl, allegedly scared that intimate photos or videos of her might have been distributed, is undergoing therapy, the reports noted.