BA plane taken out of service over bed bugs
27.02.11
British Airways has taken one of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets out of service after a passenger complained she was bitten by bed bugs during a flight. Business executive Zane Selkirk, 28, who lives in California, said she had been bitten during two flights recently, from Los Angeles to Heathrow on January 28 and Bangalore to Heathrow on February 5.
Ms Selkirk said she noticed one of the blood-sucking creatures on the seat in front of her shortly before take-off on the first flight, later going to the plane’s toilet to find five or six ‘crawling around on my white shirt’. She said that on her return journey to Heathrow, she became very itchy after departing the plane and discovered she was covered in 90 bed bug bites.
Unhappy with the response from British Airways, Selkirk launched www.ba-bites.com, a website covering her experience in vivid detail with some nasty looking photographs. She wrote to British Airways: ‘Not only was the experience itself absolutely disgusting, but your staff (nearly without exception) were revolting to me personally throughout the ordeal.'
Ms Selkirk claimed British Airways had contacted her to apologise only after the media began covering the story. She claims British Airways has offered her money ‘as a gesture of goodwill’, which she has rejected.
A BA spokesman said the aircraft involved had been taken out of service and treated before returning to service. He told the Telegraph. ‘British Airways operates more than 250,000 flights every year, and reports of bed bugs onboard are extremely rare. Nevertheless, we are vigilant about the issue and continually monitor our aircraft. 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.’
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