A passenger is recalling an unnerving scenario aboard a recent Qantas flight.
In a 9News Sydney exclusive, Hailey Bagnall described bed bugs “crawling over our belongings, our clothing, our Qantas blankets, and they were even crawling along the window” on flight QF5 on Oct. 9.
9News reports passengers flagged flight crew on the first leg of the flight from Sydney to Perth, but it still continued on its more than 16-hour journey to Rome.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, passengers on the latter leg complained of being bitten.
The aircraft was supposed to fly back to Perth the next day, but that flight was canceled.
“We sincerely apologise to customers for the cancellation of Saturday’s Rome to Perth service, which allowed our engineers and
maintenance teams to carry out a deep clean of the aircraft after an issue identified on a small number of economy seats," Qantas said in a statement to USA TODAY, adding that impacted customers were offered accommodations and rebooking.
The Australian airline notes its aircraft are regularly cleaned to very high standards and treated with disinsection every 50 days as a precaution, as the safety wellbeing of its customers and crew are its top priority.
The cause of the incident remains under investigation.
How to tell if you have bed bugs
Adults bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed. The Environmental Protection Agency describes them as "long and brown, with a flat, oval-shaped body (if not fed recently)" and "balloon-like, reddish-brown, and more elongated (if fed recently)."
"Younger, they can be a little bit more difficult to see. The ones that recently hatched from eggs could be like the size of like a freckle," Orkin entomologist Benjamin Hottel previously told USA TODAY, adding that younger bed bugs are also lighter in color.
Hottel also noted that bed bugs can survive over a year without feeding.
When they do feed, the Mayo Clinic says bites are typically itchy, inflamed with a darker spot in the center, and either clustered or in rough line on the skin. However some people have not reaction while others have allergic reactions.
How to avoid bringing bed bugs home
Travelers who think they’ve been exposed to bed bugs can keep them from infesting their home with a few easy steps.
Hottel recommends checking shoes and luggage for bed bugs before entering the house. Then, "When you get home, you can put all your clothes into the dryer on high heat, and it'll kill everything.”
He said anything that can’t go in a dryer could be frozen, but it takes a lot longer to kill bed bugs that way, around two weeks or more.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Qantas flight canceled after bed bugs reported on previous flight
