American Airlines flight attendant accused of trying to film a teen girl in an airplane bathroom tried to convince her it wasn't weird, family says

14.09.2023 - 21:39 / insider.com / News / Airlines

An American Airlines flight attendant used "psychological tricks" to convince a teen girl there was nothing strange happening as he tried to spy on her in the bathroom, her family says.

Lewis & Llewellyn LLP, the law firm representing the family, provided boarding passes to Insider that show their clients — two parents and their two minor daughters — were all on American Airlines Flight 1441 from Charlotte to Boston September 2.

Attorney Erin Reding told Insider that while the couple's 14-year-old daughter was waiting to use the bathroom in coach, a flight attendant approached her and told her she could instead use the bathroom in first class.

Reding said the girl thought the offer was strange because the first-class bathroom was also occupied. But she agreed. The flight attendant then entered the bathroom ahead of her, saying he just needed to wash his hands.

The girl's mother, who spoke to Insider on condition of anonymity because her daughter is a minor, said that she thinks the flight attendant was trying to make her daughter less suspicious.

"If something feels just the slightest bit off, pay attention to that feeling," she said. "Because she remembers thinking, 'Why is he moving me from the mid-cabin bathroom to the first class bathroom when there's one person using the bathroom in both places and no line?"

When the flight attendant came out of the bathroom, he told the teenager there was tape on the toilet indicating the seat was broken but that she could ignore it, Reding said.

"I think that that was like a psychological trick to make her not really study it," the mother said. "So that she kind of felt like, 'I know what that is. I don't need to worry about that. That's broken, so don't investigate it."

The girl noticed red tape on the back of the toilet seat but didn't think anything of it until she went to flush and noticed a phone camera sticking out from below the tape. The teenager snapped a photo, which clearly shows the shape of a cellphone surrounded by tape and what looks like the light of a phone camera.

Reding said the girl then notified her mother, who warned another passenger who was trying to enter the bathroom.

The girl's mother said she was initially confused when her daughter showed her the photo. It took her "several moments" to understand what she was looking at, she told Insider.

The mother said the whole thing was "really jarring" for her daughter, who she says feels violated and embarrassed.

"You think of flight attendants as authority figures, people that are there for your safety and people you can trust," the mother said. "They're going to tell you what to do. I think she was just following direction."

"To find out — from her perspective — that she was being targeted,