SYDNEY — Passengers were stranded for days after a plane operated by Australian airline Qantas was grounded following a bed bug outbreak.The Boeing 787 Dreamliner had to be grounded for “a deep clean”, a Qantas spokesperson said, after some passengers onboard flight QF5 from Perth to Rome — a nearly 17-hour journey — on Friday reported being bitten by bugs mid-flight. The Qantas flight back to Perth was canceled on Saturday, leaving the passengers stranded.The affected passengers were treated with antihistamines on medical advice to help ease the itch of the bites, but the aircraft reportedly ran out of the medication.Bed bugs are small insects that feed on human blood and their bites can cause itching and swelling. They are not known to spread disease.”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 was identified on a small number of economy seats,” the Qantas spokesperson said.All affected customers were provided with accommodation and were rebooked on alternative flights within 48 hours of their original departure, the carrier said.The Perth-to-Rome route is a popular non-stop service for the airline. It has extended the seasonal service until late October by adding 40 flights and almost 10,000 seats.Bedbugs causing travel chaos is not unusual. Less than two weeks ago, several Southeastern train services in England were cancelled after drivers discovered the creepy-crawlies in their cabs.In 2017, British Airways apologized to a family travelling from Vancouver to London, after they were left covered in bug bites from an overnight flight.Turkish Airlines faced a PR nightmare last year after the New York Times reported several instances of bedbug infestations on its planes and allegations at the time that the airline did nothing about it.
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