Bed Bug Infestation Discovered on BA Transatlantic Flight
Jeff Edwards February 26, 2016
Reports of some unwelcome creepy-crawly stowaways on flights between the U.S. and the U.K. are keeping British Airways officials from sleeping tight.
Newspaper reports of severe bed bug infestations on British Airways flights have the airline attempting to exterminate pests and quash rumors at the same time. The Sun first reported that a BA flight bound from the U.S. to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) was so overrun with bed bugs that the crew was forced to cordon off an entire row of seats.
To be clear, no public space including theaters, restaurants, shopping centers, hotels and yes, even airplanes are safe from potential bed bug infestation. What makes the British Airways cases so extraordinary are the reports that company officials were aware of documented infestations on some aircraft but declined to remove the parasite-infested planes from service.
Media reports allege that the same British Airways Boeing 747 that required the crew to close a section of the plane in-flight took off again at least three separate times despite the fact that BA management had received written reports of passengers being bitten by bedbugs each time the aircraft was flown. The plane was finally taken out of service for fumigation after several passengers complained about bed bug bites on a flight from O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) to LHR. Company officials deny that the airline would ignore the itchy situation and allow an aircraft to fly under those circumstances.
“Whenever any report of bed bugs is received, we launch a thorough investigation and, if appropriate, remove the aircraft from service and use specialist teams to treat it,” a spokesman told the Telegraph. “The presence of bed bugs is an issue faced occasionally by hotels and airlines all over the world. British Airways operates more than 280,000 flights every year, and reports of bed bugs onboard are extremely rare. Nevertheless, we are vigilant about the issue and continually monitor our aircraft.”
[Photo: Wikipedia]
Ugh... why did I have to read this right before going to bed and heading out on another week-long travel session?
BA is lying. There are no pesticides due to a large virtually global ban on DDT. Any organization that says they disinfected and fumigated the aircraft, car, hotel room, etc.. is lying. Budbugs can live for a year without feeding (human blood) and the same with their eggs. Learn to tear apart a hotel room before setting luggage down and learn how to look for bedbugs on aircraft (and yes they hide in seat seems and overhead bins).