The parents of a teenage girl who was allegedly filmed in the bathroom during an American Airlines flight have released an image which they say shows an iPhone strapped to a toilet seat.
Authorities were called to meet American Airlines flight 1441 from Charlotte to Boston on 2 September after the mother complained that a male flight attendant had secretly filmed her daughter in the first-class restroom.
The American Airlines air host was removed from a flight by state troopers when it landed at Boston Logan International Airport.
The parents, who have requested anonymity, told the New York Post they were furious about the incident.
“I think there’s a real feeling of violation,” the girl’s father told the Post.
“I think as a teenage girl, she’s a little bit embarrassed that something so intimate as going to the bathroom would be filmed this way.”
The image, released through the family lawyer, shows the cell phone taped to the toilet lid under a “seat broken” sign. The phone’s camera flash appears to be on.
An American Airlines flight attendant was escorted from a flight after he was accused of strapping an iPhone to the seat of a first-class bathroom to secretly record a female teenager— (Supplied)
Massachusetts State Police said in a statement they were notified of a “potential criminal act” that occurred mid-flight. They said they had handed over the investigation to the FBI, who have jurisdiction over crimes that occur on domestic flights.
The flight attendant, who has not been identified, reportedly stopped the teenager while she was on her way to the restroom in coach, and told her she could use the one in first class as it would be quicker.
Before she entered the bathroom, he told her he needed to wash his hands as he had been collecting trash.
The teenage girl relayed to her parents that the attendant was in the toilet for about a minute, before coming out and telling her that the seat was broken.
She then took a picture of the iPhone strapped to the toilet seat.
After the girl left the restroom, the attendant was seen going back in, a passenger on board the flight told Boston 25.
American Airlines said they are taking the alleged secret filming incident ‘very seriously’— (Associated Press)
As another passenger was about to enter the bathroom, the girl’s mother came up from the economy cabin and warned them not to go in as there was a hidden camera.
The girl’s dad told the Post he confronted the four flight attendants with the photo, and saw the male air host’s face go “totally white”.
State police boarded the flight and inspected the restroom, before taking the male attendant away, the witness said.
The father said that he eyeballed the “creepy” attendant as he was escorted from the plane.
In a statement to The Independent last week, an American Airlines spokesperson said: “We take this matter very seriously and are fully cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation, as safety and security are our highest priorities.”
They directed further media inquiries to law enforcement.
