So, A Passenger Was Secretly Recording People in the First Class Bathroom

Not much is worse than having to use the bathroom on an airplane during a flight — except for later discovering you were being recorded while in the lavatory. A Malaysian man was formally charged recently with installing a camera in plane lavatories; one was recently found on a United Airlines flight.

Earlier this year, a passenger on a United Airlines flight from San Diego to Houston made a strange discovery in the airplane’s first class lavatory: a device with a blinking blue light. She brought it to the crew, who then handed it over to Houston United Airlines Corporate Security—and security determined it was a camera.

“After viewing the information on the device, a male was caught on video installing the device in the first class lavatory of this particular flight,” court documents say, reported by USA Today. Only the man’s clothing and jewelry was visible on the video device, but combined with footage of passengers boarding and deplaning, authorities and the FBI were able to determine the man’s identity.

Malaysian citizen Choon Ping Lee, who works for an oil field service company, was officially charged on August 5 for installing the camera. Deleted footage included “another aircraft bathroom/lavatory where at least two women/victims were caught on camera,” the documents say. “After further review and research, it was determined the deleted files were of the Emirates Aircraft Lavatory. One of the women/victims caught on camera was wearing an Emirates flight crew uniform.”

United is cooperating with the investigation.

“The safety and security of our customers is our top priority,” United spokesperson Kimberly Gibbs told USA TODAY in a statement. “When our crew was alerted of this issue they acted quickly to notify the appropriate authorities. We will fully cooperate and support this investigation as it moves forward.”

[Featured Image: Flickr/ Alan Light]