A recent Houston-bound airline traveler is in federal custody and facing a rare charge of video voyeurism aboard an aircraft after a fellow passenger reportedly spotted a device hidden in the first class bathroom of a United Airlines flight from San Diego.

According to court documents, federal and local law enforcement cross-referenced video surveillance of their own to track the device to Choon Ping Lee, a native of Malayasia. Lee was arrested Thursday and is being held in a Houston detention facility pending a bond hearing.

Investigators first extracted images from the device that showed a man setting up the camera in a bathroom stall. They identified Lee as a suspect by matching it to clothing he was wearing in surveillance video inside the San Diego and Houston airports.

The allegations came to light after a female passenger seated in the last row of the first class cabin found a device with a blinking blue light near the cabinet, wall and door hinge of the restroom.

“The item was loosely hanging and she wasn't sure if the item was part of the aircraft, but thought it was odd,” a special agent from the FBI explained in a sworn statement. “Once done in the lavatory, the identified female passenger stood up, grabbed the item with a paper towel, walked out of the lavatory and gave it to the flight crew.”

The flight crew handed the object to corporate security officials for United at George Bush Intercontinental airport, who determined it was a video recording device.

The FBI agent stated that in the video footage the man’s face is not distinguishable, but his blue short-sleeved shirt, loose-fitting blue jeans, black leather tennis shoes and jewelry were “distinctive.” He wore a watch on his left wrist and a small bracelet on his right wrist.

Investigators cross-referenced this video with airport footage obtained by the FBI in San Diego for United Airlines Flight 646 passengers boarding the aircraft and footage of passengers arriving at the airport in Houston.

In the airport footage, officials noted the letters NJC appeared on back of the man’s shirt and he wore glasses and carried a black backpack.

Houston Police Department at the Houston airport enhanced photos of the suspect’s face, clothing, shoes and jewelry to identify the man who installed the device in the plane’s lavatory.

Other video deleted from the device showed footage investigators believe was captured of women in the bathroom on an Emirates Airlines flight, including one who was wearing an Emirates uniform.

Lee works for Halliburton. The company provided the FBI with Lee’s travel information that showed he had flown on Emirates for work-related matters. Video footage from a hallway at Halliburton where Lee worked showed him wearing a watch and bracelet that matched the passenger seen on flight 646 on May 5.

Lee was charged with “video voyeurism aboard an aircraft,” a law added to the U.S. code in 2004 that prohibits capturing images or video without consent of a someone’s genitals or “any portion of the female breast” in a location where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. The jurisdiction is “the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States,” which in this case, means the alleged crime occurred on an aircraft. The law carries a recommended sentence of up to one year.

Federal court records indicate that federal prosecutors have never previously arrested anyone under the law in the 44-county federal court district in the 15 years since the law was enacted.

gabrielle.banks@chron.com