A mother and daughter were left sore and bloodied after encountering bed bugs on a British Airways flight from Vancouver to London.
According to Metro, 38-year-old Heather Szilagyi and her 7-year-old daughter, Molly, alerted flight attendants to the bugs but were unable to change seats on the crowded flight.
"It was kind of dark, but I saw something moving and hoped to god it was a spider. It wasn't. It crawled back behind the TV screen before I could grab it," Szilagyi told Metro. "The next one fell on my pillow that was on my lap. I hoped that one was a flax seed or an apple seed. Then it started crawling."
She said she handed the bug to the flight attendant. "You almost never feel them biting. They're very small. You don't know you got bit until later, sometimes a couple days later."
Szilagyi said the two woke up "absolutely covered" in bug bites the following day and some of the bites began to bleed.
British Airways has issued an apology to the family.
"We are very sorry to hear about this and have been in touch with our customer to investigate further," the airline said in a statement. "British Airways operates more than 280,000 flights every year, and reports of bed bugs onboard are extremely rare. Nevertheless, we are vigilant and continually monitor our aircraft."
According to Szilagyi, the return flight with British Airways went much smoother. She said her family received the best seats on the plane and "kind and very empathetic" customer service from the crew.
While travelers are typically beset by bed bug infestations at hotels, it's quite rare to find the insects on planes. Lately, scorpion sightings have been more common.
"The presence of bed bugs is an issue faced occasionally by hotels and airlines all over the world," said British Airways.
In August, a British Airways passenger said he was forced to sit in a urine-soaked seat during an 11.5-hour flight from London to Cape Town, South Africa.
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