British Airways flight infested with bed bugs, woman claims

A woman claims a British Airway flight to London was infested with bed bugs (Reuters)

A mom has called out British Airways, claiming she and her seven-year-old daughter were left bleeding after being ravaged by bed bugs during a flight to London Heathrow.

Heather Szilagyi said she saw the critters crawling out from behind her in-flight TV frame and food tray during the journey.

Although she discreetly flagged the issue to cabin crew, she said they were unable to re-seat her, her fiance Eric Neilson and her daughter Molly.

She told The Sun Online the experience has ruined their trip after they spent hours washing themselves, their clothes and tending to their sores.

Szilagyi, from Vancouver, Canada, said: “It’s been really frustrating, this has been horrible and it really ruined our trip.”

The incident occurred while the trio was aboard a BA flight departing Vancouver on Monday night.

They were stopping over in London on their way to Slovakia.

“It was about half an hour to an hour into the flight I saw one. It was coming out of the back of the TV screen. It came out of that and I wanted to get it with a Kleenex but it crawled back in.

“Our food came out and I went to put the tray down on my lap. I saw what was maybe a flax seed – but it started moving – it was a bug.”

She claims she then informed staff for a second time that the critters had infested her seat.

“Once we got to the Airbnb that we were staying in, we went to sleep.”

“My daughter had a few bites on her thighs but when she woke up she was covered, she had them all over. It was just so bad and awful, my daughter was bleeding. We just want to make sure that airplane is taken care of and so we just want to make sure that we have a flight tomorrow morning and we have to get back into another BA flight.”

“We just want to get on a plane that doesn’t have fabric seats, or maybe another partner airline.”

A BA spokesman told The Sun: “We have said sorry to our customers for their experience. British Airways operates more than 280,000 flights every year and reports of bed bugs on board are extremely rare.

“Nevertheless, we are vigilant and continually monitor our aircraft. The presence of bed bugs is an issue faced occasionally by hotels and airlines all over the world.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun