Passengers on a Qantas flight reportedly awoke to screams after bed bugs were seen crawling up their legs, across personal belongings and along the aircraft’s windows.
The infestation came to light on October 9, when passengers on flight QF5 from Perth to Rome said they had been bitten during the journey.
Qantas subsequently cancelled Saturday’s return flight from Rome to Perth and grounded the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for an extensive cleaning and fumigation.
Passengers now claim they had warned Qantas crew about the bed bugs several hours earlier, while travelling on the Sydney-to-Perth leg of QF5. They said they were shocked that the aircraft continued its journey to Rome.
Passenger Hailey Bagnall told 9News the insects were crawling across travellers’ belongings, clothes, Qantas blankets and even the plane windows.
“As we were going to collect our bags, the bugs just kept coming,” she said.
“They were inside my husband’s shoes, crawling up our legs and all over our jumpers.”
Several other passengers said they were bitten during the gruelling 17-hour flight to Italy.
A Qantas flight was grounded after a bed bug outbreak, leaving passengers stranded in Rome for several days
Passenger Hailey Bagnall said bed bugs crawled across her clothes, Qantas-issued blanket and the aircraft windows
Travellers on the 17-hour flight to Italy reported being bitten and said screams woke passengers during the journey
“I was woken by screaming. A baby was saying ‘buggies’ and some people were sick,” another passenger said.
Passengers affected by the incident were provided with accommodation and transferred to alternative flights within 48 hours of their scheduled departure.
A Qantas spokesperson said cancelling the service allowed maintenance teams to carry out a thorough deep clean of the aircraft.
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“We sincerely apologise to customers for the cancellation of Saturday’s Rome to Perth service, which allowed our engineers and maintenance teams to conduct a deep clean after an issue was identified in a small number of economy seats,” the spokesperson said.
The airline said its aircraft are cleaned regularly and disinfected every 50 days as a precautionary measure.
The Perth-to-Rome route is a popular non-stop service for Australia’s national carrier. Qantas extended its seasonal schedule through late October, adding 40 flights and nearly 10,000 seats.
Bed bugs are tiny, wingless insects measuring between one and five millimetres that survive by feeding on human blood.
The pests can spread rapidly by concealing themselves in clothing, furniture and passengers’ personal belongings.
Bed bugs feed on human blood and can spread through clothes, furniture and personal belongings, making them notoriously difficult to eliminate
Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to eradicate once they take hold, often requiring extreme heat, freezing, chemical treatments and fumigation.
Their bites can cause itching and swelling, although the insects are not known to spread disease.
‘Bed bugs are not believed to transmit diseases to humans,’ according to the Victorian Government’s Better Health Channel website.
‘Their bite typically causes a large, reddened and itchy weal that fades to a red spot.’
The health authority said the bites themselves were painless, while the severity of the reaction differed between people.
‘Some people do not react to the bites, but for others the bites can become itchy and swell into reddened weals (or welts).’
It is not the first time the blood-sucking pests have disrupted an international flight.
Bed bugs were found aboard a British Airways service from Vancouver to London in 2017, while passengers on a Turkish Airlines flight from Johannesburg to Istanbul complained of an outbreak in 2024.
