Overview

• Estes Carter Thompson III received an 18½-year federal prison sentence followed by five years of supervised release at FMC Butner, where he must undergo sex offender treatment.
• He pleaded guilty in March to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
• The scheme unraveled on Sept. 2, 2023, when a 14-year-old passenger discovered his iPhone taped under a first-class toilet seat and reported it mid-flight.
• Federal investigators found recordings of at least five girls aged 7 to 14 and hundreds of AI-generated child abuse images stored on Thompson’s devices.
• Families of the victims have filed civil lawsuits accusing American Airlines of oversight failures and challenging a legal filing that initially blamed a nine-year-old child.