BOSTON – A Charlotte family is speaking out after their daughter found a hidden camera on an American Airlines flight to Boston. They assume a flight attendant secretly smuggled it into the bathroom.
The family has asked to remain anonymous. They were on their way to Boston on September 2nd. During the flight, her 14-year-old daughter went to the toilet. She says a male flight attendant told her it would be quicker to go to the bathroom in first class.
“She remembers thinking it was strange because there was someone in the first class bathroom as well,” her father explained during a phone conversation with WBZ.
The teen says the crew member asked to go in first, saying he needed to wash his hands before cleaning up the trash.
“That’s a strange thing to say when you start collecting trash,” said the family’s attorney, Paul Llewellyn.
A family says this hidden camera was planted in the bathroom of a plane heading to Boston. CBS Boston
When the flight attendant came out, she claimed he told her the seat was broken and that it would be repaired upon landing. After going to the bathroom, she discovered a piece of tape that said “Seat Broken.” It was written on bureaucracy that appeared to have been issued by the crew. Under the tape was a cell phone with a flashlight on. The family believes it was a recording. She took a photo of it and brought it to her parents.
“My wife’s first thought was that I had to stop anyone else being filmed, so she rushed to first class as a passenger was about to go to the toilet. She said, ‘Don’t go in there,'” the girl’s father said. “I confronted all four and asked, ‘What just happened to my daughter in the bathroom?’ I showed them the picture. I took my daughter’s cell phone and showed them the picture. When the male flight attendant saw it, his face turned completely white.”
Later, the family said, a flight attendant came to their seats.
“They said the captain had been notified and the police would meet us when we landed. This male flight attendant’s luggage had to be searched,” says the father.
The family encountered Massachusetts State Police at the gate. They say an officer brought the flight attendant’s phone to her daughter and she identified it as the one seen in the bathroom.
“We showed him the picture and he asked the airline representative, ‘Who would have access to this tape, the bureaucracy you see in the photo, he said there was no way anyone other than the crew could have access to it,'” said the girl’s father. “They kept telling her, ‘Thank you, you stopped a criminal.’ You did something very brave.
American Airlines says it is cooperating fully with the investigation, which is now in the hands of the FBI. The family and their lawyer say the airline has not contacted them at all.
“We will wait to see if the flight attendant is arrested and charged and will explore all options on the civil side,” Llewellyn said.