FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth-based American Airlines confirms it has a new legal team defending it in a Texas lawsuit after a court filing this week blamed a 9-year-old girl for allegedly being secretly recorded in an airplane’s bathroom by a flight attendant.
Attorneys for the girl and her family, Lewis & Llewellyn LLP said it was notified Friday that Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP will represent American Airlines in the case.
“As a result of the intense media and public backlash surrounding the outrageous allegation, we are not surprised to learn that American Airlines fired its law firm,” said lawyer Paul Llewellyn of Lewis & Llewellyn LLP. “With the benefit of this new legal representation, we hope that American Airlines will now take a fresh look at the case and finally take some measure of responsibility for what happened to our client. Otherwise, we are very confident that a Texas jury will do the right thing and hold American Airlines responsible.”
American Airlines subsequently confirmed its new representation in an email to WFAA.
The initial filing alleged the girl should have known that the airplane toilet contained a recording device.
“Defendant would show that any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been sustained by Plaintiff, Mary Doe, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s own fault and negligence, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible or illuminated recording device,” the court filing read.
After receiving backlash online following Tuesday’s coverage of the filing’s language, American Airlines said the filing was made in “error” and subsequently filed an amended filing that removed that language.
“Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing,” the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. “The included defense is not representative of our airline, and we have directed it be amended this morning. We do not believe this child is at fault, and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously.”
The lawsuits against American Airlines began after a now-former flight attendant was arrested for allegedly recording a 14-year-old girl in an airplane bathroom during a flight from Charlotte to Boston in September 2023.
Estes Carter Thompson III also allegedly had recordings of four other girl passengers in his possession -- including one of the 9-year-old Texas girl at the center of this week's filing, who was allegedly recorded during a flight from Austin to Los Angeles.
Estes was later indicted on a complaint of attempted sexual exploitation of children and another count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor in this case. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in a federal courtroom in Boston on Monday.
