Qantas was forced to take a Boeing 787 Dreamliner out of service in Rome after bedbugs were found on board during a flight from Perth, leading to the cancellation of the return service to Australia.
The aircraft was operating the QF5 flight from Perth, in Western Australia, to the Italian capital, a journey of nearly 17 hours. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, which first reported the story, some passengers complained of being bitten during the flight and were reportedly given antihistamines to ease the itching, though supplies ran out. The insects were found in the front of the economy section. The plane was then withdrawn for cleaning, and the Rome to Perth service the following day was cancelled. Note that the sources differ on dates: one places the outbound flight on 9 October, while the other describes it as a Friday, with the cancelled return on Saturday 10 October.
A Qantas spokesperson said the cancellation allowed engineers and maintenance teams to carry out a deep clean after "an issue identified on a small number of economy seats", and apologised to customers. Affected passengers were given accommodation and rebooked on other flights within 48 hours of their original departure. The airline added that its cabins are cleaned regularly to a very high standard and treated with disinfectant every 50 days as a routine precaution.
Bedbugs are small, wingless insects that feed on blood and can live in clothes, furniture and bedding. Michelle Power, a parasitologist at Macquarie University in Australia, said they were "more than likely" carried onto the plane in luggage or on clothing, for instance after a stay in an infested hotel. "They're a flightless insect, without planes," she said, meaning they depend on human travel to spread. Their bites can be itchy and irritating, but they are not considered dangerous and do not usually cause more serious health problems, according to the UK's National Health Service.
They are, however, hard and costly to remove. They can hide in bedsheets and crevices for long periods without feeding, and killing them requires heat treatment of around 55C, hot washes and tumble drying, or several days in a freezer. Power noted a social dimension: frequent, wealthier travellers may spread the insects, while people facing health inequities may struggle to pay for pesticides or to heat water enough to kill them.
Such incidents are not unusual. Less than two weeks earlier, several Southeastern train services in England were cancelled after drivers found bedbugs in their cabs. In 2017, British Airways apologised to a family left covered in bites after a flight from Vancouver to London, and Turkish Airlines faced criticism last year after the New York Times reported several infestations on its aircraft.