British Airways withdrew the Boeing 747 aircraft from service as a precaution after two of the parasitic insects were discovered in a cabin. The two insects were found along row 47 of a flight flight from the U.S. to London Heathrow. Embarrassingly for the airline, the insects were spotted by passengers rather than aircrew.
This is not the first incident for British Airways with bed bugs. A flight in 2011 was found to have several of the blood lusting insects on board. Here be bugs were found inside a blanket provided by the airline to passengers.
Bed bugs (or ‘bedbugs’ – Cimex lectularius) are parasitic insects of the cimicid family that feed exclusively on blood, causing itchy bites and generally irritating their human hosts. The name of the “bed bug” is derived from the preferred habitat of the insect: warm houses and especially nearby or inside of beds and bedding or other sleep areas. Bed bugs are mainly active at night.
The aircraft is now undergoing inspection and after a thorough disinfection it will be put back into service. A spokesperson for the airline told the website Mashable: “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 — this happened in this instance.”
