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Family sues American Airlines after teen was allegedly filmed in bathroom on Boston flight

“This is the last thing that we should be worried about when we fly — are our children going to be filmed while using the airplane bathroom?”

By Abby Patkin

December 1, 2023

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A North Carolina family is suing American Airlines after they say a flight attendant hid his cellphone and secretly filmed their 14-year-old daughter while she was using the bathroom aboard a Boston-bound flight in September. 

The lawsuit, filed in North Carolina federal court on Friday, states that the airline “knew or should have known the flight attendant was a danger.” The anonymous family also alleges that American Airlines failed to immediately confiscate the flight attendant’s phone and notify the pilots, giving the flight attendant time to destroy evidence. 

“I think they hoped this would not be necessary,” Paul Llewellyn, an attorney for the family, said of the lawsuit. “But first and foremost it’s to make sure that this can never happen again. And only by raising public awareness, holding American Airlines and the flight attendant accountable, can they hope that this can never happen again for any other family.” 

Background on the American Airlines lawsuit

According to the lawsuit, the incident happened mid-flight on Sept. 2 as the girl and her family were heading from North Carolina to Boston, where her brother attends school. The girl was waiting to use the restroom in economy class when a male flight attendant saw her and told her she could use the bathroom at the front of the plane.

He led her to the front and entered the bathroom first, telling her he needed to wash his hands, the family said. As he emerged, the flight attendant allegedly told her, “The toilet seat in there is broken. But don’t worry about it. We’re going to get it fixed when we get back to Charlotte.”

According to the lawsuit, the girl noticed the toilet lid had red tape with the words “SEAT BROKEN” written on it. It was only after she had used the toilet that she allegedly saw a phone hidden beneath the tape, its camera flash turned on. 

She took a photo of the toilet seat and found the same flight attendant waiting outside the bathroom as she exited, according to the lawsuit. The family said the flight attendant ducked back inside as soon as the girl left and locked the bathroom door behind him. 

The girl told her mother what had happened, but by the time her mother rushed to the bathroom to warn other passengers, the phone and the tape were gone, according to the lawsuit. 

The girl’s father then confronted the flight attendants and demanded to see the male flight attendant’s phone. According to the lawsuit, the father saw the flight attendant “tapping furiously” on the device before he showed the father his photos. 

The girl’s father didn’t see any suspicious photos or video, and an FBI agent later told the family that investigators did not find any incriminating material after searching the phone, according to the complaint.

The family said an American Airlines representative told law enforcement officials that the red tape pictured in the photo the girl took was not accessible to passengers. The flight attendant — who was not identified in the lawsuit — had not been arrested in connection with the incident as of Friday, according to the complaint. 

In a statement provided to Boston.com, American Airlines said: “We take this matter very seriously and have been fully cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation, as safety and security are our highest priorities.” 

According to American, the flight attendant was immediately taken out of service and hasn’t worked since.

‘We put our trust in airlines’

Today, the 14-year-old girl is “jumpy, nervous, and fearful in her interactions with other people,” the lawsuit states. She reportedly suffers insomnia and nightmares, and she worries about being in public by herself. 

“Obviously, this has had a significant impact on her emotionally — the trauma of the incident, the sort of reliving it, the anxiety, the insomnia,” Llewellyn said. “She’s currently receiving treatment for that.”

He said American Airlines has not been in touch with the family in the three months since.

“They issue these sort of boilerplate statements. You know, ‘We take the matter very seriously,’” Llewellyn said. “Well, clearly they don’t, because if they did, they would be inquiring how she’s doing and [sharing] ‘this is the steps we’re taking to make sure it can never happen again.’”

He said the lawsuit sends a clear message about airlines’ responsibility to their passengers. 

“We put our trust in the airlines; we put our trust in the flight attendants,” Llewellyn said. “This is the last thing that we should be worried about when we fly — are our children going to be filmed while using the airplane bathroom? … We need to know what American Airlines is going to do to make sure that this does not happen again.”