Cell phone hidden

Man (36) filmed girls in airplane toilet

If convicted, the accused faces decades in prison.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/chalabala.cz, stock.adobe.com (Symbolbild))

 

A former flight attendant has been charged in the USA for taking photos and videos of underage girls in an airplane toilet. Hundreds of child pornography files were also found on his cell phone.

In one case, which only went to trial, the man allegedly tried to secretly take video footage of a 14-year-old girl in an airplane toilet. The incident allegedly took place last September on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, Massachusetts.

Girl lured to toilet, cell phone hidden
The 36-year-old lured the girl to the toilet in the first class of the plane, where he is said to have hidden his smartphone. However, the alleged victim discovered it, took a photo of it and informed her parents. They then informed the crew and an investigation was launched immediately after landing.

The man was reportedly arrested in January 2024 and has been in custody since then. Investigators found recordings of four other underage female passengers on his smartphone. According to the public prosecutor's office, these were apparently from flights on which he had previously worked.

Victims between seven and 14 years old
The victims were between seven and 14 years old at the time of the crime. In addition, further recordings of a nine-year-old were discovered in the defendant's cloud storage as well as hundreds of child pornographic contents created with artificial intelligence (AI).

Decades in prison
The defendant faces decades in prison if convicted. According to US media, the airline reported that the man was "suspended from duty" immediately after the incident in September and did not work again after that.