Passengers on a Qantas flight from Perth, Australia, to Rome encountered bed bugs, leading to the cancellation of their return flight. The airline provided accommodation and rebooked passengers on alternative flights within two days as part of an investigation into the cause. Stephen Doggett, a bed bug expert, explained that while such incidents are uncommon, they often stem from luggage or clothing picked up in infested hotels. He noted that seat crevices pose high risks for harboring these pests and emphasized that effective mitigation requires specialized methods due to the insects' resistance to most chemicals used on aircraft.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-13,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
On October 9, a Qantas flight from Perth to Rome reported cases of passengers being bitten by bedbugs. Due to this issue, the return flight from Rome to Perth scheduled for Saturday was canceled so that engineers and maintenance teams could thoroughly clean the aircraft. The airline provided accommodation and rebooked affected passengers on alternative flights within 48 hours. Qantas stated they sincerely apologize to customers for the disruption caused by the cancellation. This incident highlights the challenges airlines face in maintaining hygiene standards across long-haul routes, particularly on the popular Perth-to-Rome route which operates seasonally from May 3 to October 23, offering nearly 10,000 seats during this period.
Written for “Bed Bugs Ground Flight” on 2026-10-13,
grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.
Air travel can be stressful at the best of times, but imagine adding bed bugs into the mix.
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travel → imagine → mix
Passengers on a recent flight from Australia to Italy were reportedly faced with that nightmare.
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A bed bug expert says once the blood-feeding insects are onboard, it is difficult to avoid them.
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What happened?
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Over the weekend, Australian media reported that bed bugs grounded a Qantas plane, after passengers complained of itchy bites aboard a flight from Perth to Rome on Friday.
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The plane was grounded in Rome, with passengers scheduled to return to Perth given accommodation and re-booked on different flights within two days.
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plane → ground → days
Qantas is still investigating the cause.
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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 carry out a deep clean of the aircraft after an issue identified on a small number of economy seats," a spokesperson said.
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spokesperson → apologise → seats
Bed bug expert Stephen Doggett told ABC News Radio that incidents of bed bugs on flights were well-documented.
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"It's not particularly common, but it does occur," he said.
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"My gut feeling working on bed bugs for 25 years is that it's probably been in the plane for sometime and just simply not detected."
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it → work → sometime
In 2017, British Airways apologised to a family who said they were bitten by bed bugs while on a flight from Vancouver to London.
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they → apologise → London
Mr Doggett said bed bugs find their way onto flights via clothes and belongings.
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"People will stay in some location, some hotel or a hostel that has bed bugs, the bed bugs get into the belongings and they're carried on the flight.
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It's that simple," he said.
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He says the higher risk areas of the plane are where the crew sleep.
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"Because they're travelling so often, they're staying in hotels just for one night, and there's a huge turnover and that's a high risk for bed bugs," he said.
"They'll get deep into the seats, into the crevices.
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How do airlines mitigate bed bug risks?
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Qantas said it disinfected its aircraft every 50 days as part of its standard maintenance program.
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But Mr Doggett said bed bugs were a hard bug to get rid of.
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He said aircraft were regularly sprayed to keep certain exotic mosquitoes out of Australia, but bed bugs were a harder challenge.
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"They're really hard to get rid of because they're highly resistant to insecticides and they're amongst the most resistant insects on the planet," he said.
"There's very few chemicals actually approved for use because many chemicals can damage aircraft, can damage the aluminium."
He said using a combination of a vacuum, steam and certain insecticides can be effective, but that was an expensive task.
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that → get → vacuum
How can you avoid them on a plane?
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Unfortunately, Mr Doggett says there is virtually nothing passengers can do once they are aboard a bed bug infested flight.
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they → say → flight
"There's nowhere to go, but certainly if you think you've got bed bugs, then look in the seat, look for signs of bed bugs and most importantly take photos because you could use that even in litigation against the airline," he told ABC Perth Breakfast.
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He said they will hide in the crevices and the cracks of the seats.
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"Sometimes you may not see bed bugs themselves, the adult bed bugs about the size and colour of an apple seed … but the juvenile stages tend to be much smaller, and they'll be a light colour green," he said.
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The Aporia
