American Airlines is changing direction after saying that a young girl was negligent after being recorded by a flight attendant in the lavatory.
In the filing on May 21 the airline claimed that one of the plaintiffs, a 9-year-old girl, was recorded in the bathroom through her “own fault and negligence.”
“[The] Plaintiff’s use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device,” American Airlines response to the petition said.
American Airlines flight attendant:Accused of filming girls in plane bathroom arrested
Attorney Paul Llewellyn is representing two young girls who were recorded on separate flights, including the 9-year-old.
“I was both shocked and outraged,” Llewellyn told USA TODAY. “As a lawyer I understand that you have to assert possible defenses, but I cannot even imagine a world where it would ever be appropriate to blame a 9-year-old for being filmed in an airplane bathroom
In a statement to USA TODAY, American Airlines said that there was an error in the filing.
“Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing. The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended this morning,” an American Airlines spokesperson said in a statement. “We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously. Our core mission is to care for people — and the foundation of that is the safety and security of our customers and team.”
Llewellyn said that this situation has greatly impacted the victims, especially since the images were not ever located.
“As a result of this has had a significant impact on them,” he said, “These images they could be on the dark web forever. These poor young girls for the rest of their lives will have this hanging over their heads and these intimate images of them exist out there and we don’t know who has possession of them.”