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The parents of a 14-year-old girl are suing American Airlines after they claim a male flight attendant hid his cell phone to secretly film their daughter in the bathroom aboard a flight in September from Charlotte to Boston.
During the flight on September 2nd The lawsuit alleges that a flight attendant used duct tape to secure it He placed an iPhone on the toilet lid and began recording just before the North Carolina teenager entered the toilet.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina said Friday that the airline “knew or should have known that the flight attendant posed a danger.” Other crew members failed to confiscate the employee’s phone after the girl complained about the incident, giving him time to destroy the alleged evidence.
John Robert Buric, the attorney representing the girl’s family, said the incident was “aggravated by the fact that the acts complained of were committed by someone the airline had hired to protect this young girl.”
“In the three months since the incident, no one from American Airlines has bothered to contact or check on my customer. “This must never happen again,” said Buric on Friday.
In a statement, American Airlines said: “We take this matter very seriously and have cooperated fully with law enforcement in their investigation as safety is our top priority.”
The airline said the flight attendant had not worked since the incident was reported, but did not respond to questions about whether she was still employed by the company.
The alleged incident occurred mid-flight as the teenager and her family were traveling to visit her brother in Boston. While she was waiting to use the toilet in economy class, the unnamed flight attendant approached her and asked her to use the toilet The bathroom at the front of the plane in first class, the complaint says.
After leading her there, the flight attendant allegedly entered the restroom before the teen and told her he needed to wash his hands before trash pickup began. About a minute later, he exited the restroom and, according to the complaint, told the girl, “The toilet seat in there is broken. But don’t worry about that. We’ll get it repaired when we get back to Charlotte.”
The girl saw that there was red tape on the toilet lid that said “SEAT BROKEN,” according to the complaint. She locked the door and used the toilet. But when she tried to flush the toilet, she said she found a phone hidden under the belt with the camera flash on.
The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, “was shocked and frightened,” the complaint states. “She immediately realized that someone had put the phone there to film her going to the toilet.” She then took a photo of the alleged setup with her own phone.
After exiting the restroom, the flight attendant went back inside, locked the door, and the girl returned to her seat, where she informed her parents about the incident.
The teen’s father insisted on seeing the male flight attendant’s phone. The lawsuit says the father watched the flight attendant “angrily” tap the screen of his device before finally handing it over to him. The father have not seen any suspicious or questionable videos or photos, The complaint states.
“The male flight attendant had sufficient time to delete or hide any incriminating images or videos on his phone during the second half of the flight, when he had full access to his phone,” the complaint continues.
According to the family, an FBI agent later told the girl’s parents that they did not arrest the man because they did not find any pictures of the girl on his phone.
The complaint describes the teenage girl as “restless, nervous and anxious” around others. She reportedly suffers from insomnia and nightmares, has difficulty concentrating on schoolwork, and is worried that the flight attendant may have distributed a video or photos of her to other people. According to the lawsuit, she is undergoing trauma therapy.