A couple in the US said their teenage daughter discovered a hidden camera inside a bathroom on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Boston earlier this month, Newsweek reported. They believe a flight attendant snuck it into the bathroom and used it to record her.
The incident happened on September 2 when the couple's 14-year-old daughter was waiting to use the bathroom in coach. Soon, a male flight attendant approached her and told her she could instead use the bathroom in first class, as "it'll be quicker." As she arrived at the first-class bathroom the flight attendant stopped her and said he needed to go inside to wash his hands as garbage collection was about to start.
When she went inside, she noticed a red sticker on the inside of the toilet seat lid that read, "seat broken." The girl said she used the toilet, and afterward, upon second glance, she noticed there was an iPhone underneath the tape with the camera lenses facing out.
She took a picture of it and showed it to her parents when she got back to her seat. The picture showed a cellphone with the flash on taped upside down to the inside of a toilet seat lid. Concerned, her mother immediately went to look for the phone but it was gone by the time she reached the toilet.
After the girl headed back to her seat, the same flight attendant went back inside the bathroom, her parents said.
"It's sickening. There is no doubt in our minds that she was targeted by him. I mean, he approached her while she was waiting for the bathroom. He walked her up there. He went right in before her and then right after her,'' the girl's father said.
The couple said their family provided statements to Massachusetts State Police investigators when they landed. The flight attendant was escorted off the plane after airline staff checked the bathroom, Boston 25 reported. American Airlines says they are cooperating fully with the investigation, which is now in the hands of the FBI.
Paul T. Llewellyn, the attorney representing the family, told NBC10 Boston in a statement that "it is shocking that a sexual predator could brazenly prey on a minor while she used the bathroom on a flight."
