Pilot charged with invasion of privacy for upskirt pics of girl, 15

Looks like Joseph Pereira won't be cleared for takeoff any time soon.

The middle-aged US Airways pilot surrendered to police yesterday, less than a week after he was caught allegedly using a cell phone to snap pictures underneath a 15-year-old girl's skirt at Philadelphia International Airport.

Pereira, of Wexford, Pa., was charged with invasion of privacy and harassment for taking the perverted pics, which investigators viewed on his phone, said police spokesman Sgt. Ray Evers.

A US Airways spokesman said that the company suspended Pereira, 55, after allegations of the cell-phone snafu were first reported last Thursday.

On Sunday, Pereira resigned from his side job as the co-head coach of the junior-varsity and varsity girls softball team at North Allegheny Senior High School, in Wexford, 20 minutes north of Pittsburgh.

He didn't offer a reason for his sudden resignation, said Joy Ed, spokeswoman for the North Allegheny school district.

Many of the district's employees found out about Pereira's alleged voyeuristic photography Monday.

"It's been very shocking," Ed said. "He's been well-respected here."

The spokeswoman said that Pereira had coached girls softball at the high school for the last 13 years. No allegations of misconduct had ever been leveled at him, she noted.

Police said that there was little doubt what Pereira was up to about 7:15 p.m. last Thursday, when he spied a skirt-wearing teen inside CNBC News, a retail shop located in Terminal C at the airport.

A store employee, who witnessed the incident but declined to be identified, said that Pereira squatted down and pretended to read a newspaper while the teen had her back to him.

"He extended his arm and was snapping shots underneath her skirt with his cell phone," the employee told the Daily News.

Police were alerted to the incident by another witness and stopped Pereira, who was dressed in his pilot's uniform.

Evers said that investigators confirmed the witnesses' accounts of Pereira's impromptu photo shoot after viewing the pictures on his cell phone.

It was unclear if Pereira had a defense attorney.

Staff writer Regina Medina contributed to this report.