A British Airways (BA) flight scheduled between Heathrow and Ghana was forced to ground as the aircraft was infested with bedbugs.
According to The Sun, the aircraft was taken out of service as soon as the authorities were made aware of the situation and a replacement flight was arranged for passengers. The cabin crew refused to fly the now grounded craft shortly before takeoff.
Sources told the British news outlet that the insects were seen all over the seats. "The cabin crew saw bedbugs crawling over the seats — visible to the naked eye. They said it was unacceptable to work on that aircraft."
The replacement flight was arranged but it was four hours after the scheduled departure.
A BA spokesperson told MailOnline that the issue has been dealt with. "The comfort of our customers is paramount, so as soon as this very rare issue was identified at Heathrow, we immediately took the aircraft out of service for treatment," the statement read.
It is reported that this isn't the first time that bedbugs were found on flights. There have been frequent complaints of bedbugs on flights going to Las Vegas.
Recently, Daily Mail reported that a frequent BA passenger, Mike Gregory who was flying business class from London to Cape Town, was constantly bitten by bed bugs on his way to Cape Town.
The man who was flying from London to the South African destination to ring in the New Year, said, "I had an incredibly itchy waist, torso and hands, I realised I had been bitten 120 to 150 times. I was shocked and obviously appalled by it, I was amazed it was even possible to have bedbugs on a flight. It has ruined my family holiday."
These cases of bedbugs in the wake of BA facing accusations of providing poor customer service and cutting perks. The Sun also reports that the airlines' new misery comes amid protests that BA is using cheap cleaning contractors who are not doing a good job in maintaining the flights.
