Summary
- A lawsuit was filed against American Airlines due to a flight attendant allegedly recording a 14-year-old passenger in an airplane toilet.
- FBI declined to arrest the flight attendant attributable to an absence of evidence on their phone. The family’s lawyers claim the airline must have known the flight attendant was a danger.
- Background investigations are conducted of aviation employees, however the industry still faces challenges.
A lawsuit against American Airlines was filed in a US district court in North Carolina on Friday, stemming from a September 2 incident where a flight attendant had allegedly taped an iPhone to an airplane toilet to try and record a 14-year-old passenger while in the rest room.
The flight, AA-1441, from Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in North Carolina to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) landed safely without further incident. American Airlines said that it had removed the crew member from service immediately following the flight, and the incident was investigated by the FBI shortly thereafter.
Despite the 14-year-old passenger having the ability to provide a photograph of the flight attendant’s iPhone because it was taped to the back of the bathroom, the FBI declined to arrest the flight attendant attributable to an absence of incriminating evidence on the crew member’s phone. Lawyers for the family say that the opposite crew members’ failure to confiscate the phone provided the chance for the flight attendant/ perpetrator to delete evidence, and the airline must have known or known that the flight attendant was a danger, based on the Associated Press.
The Incident
On the day of the incident, AA-1441 was operated by an A321 (N572UW). Sometime through the flight, a teenage passenger stood up and proceeded to make her technique to the lavatories on the aft of the aircraft, where, upon arrival, the passenger was instructed by a male flight attendant to make use of the forward lavatory. The male flight attendant then proceeded to step briefly into the rest room to clean their hands before the 14-year-old female could use the rest room.
Photo: London Heathrow Airport
When the passenger was finally in the rest room herself, she noticed the iPhone with its flashlight left on taped to the lid of the bathroom seat using an equipment inoperative sticker. The passenger took a photograph of the hidden camera and informed the flight crew. When the aircraft landed in Boston, it was met by Massachusetts State Police, who escorted the male flight attendant off the aircraft. The FBI investigation right into a ‘potential criminal act’ was announced days later.
On the time, American Airlines told Easy Flying the next:
Background checks
Background investigations are an important a part of employment for any aviation business. As a part of certification to develop into a flight attendant, any crew member could be subject to such background investigations. Pre-employment background investigations would come with searches for criminal history lasting ten years.
It’s unclear if the flight attendant involved within the incident had previously worked for one more airline, which might have also conducted its own pre-employment background investigation. It is usually unknown if this individual would have had a credential issued by their base airport, which might have required its own background investigation to earn.
Photo: Leonard Zhukovsky | Shutterstock
Despite background checks, the air transport industry is not resistant to crime. In August, a United Airlines worker was accused of multiple accounts of the production of kid pornography. In November, a gaggle of passengers who were aboard a Horizon Airlines flight sued the airline for not conducting proper security measures following a flight where a jumpseat pilot attempted to shut down the aircraft’s engines in flight.
American Airlines itself was also sued by a passenger in 2022 after an incident where the airline provided material to police used to wrongfully indict the passenger in a theft from a duty-free store at Dallas-Fort Price International Airport (DFW). During that incident, the passenger involved spent 17 days in jail after American Airlines mistakenly confused his identity with that of a theft suspect.