Mother Furious After Daughter Bitten by Bed Bugs on Plane

A Vancouver mother is furious after her 7-year-old daughter was bitten by bed bugs on a British Airways flight to London.

Heather Szilagyi shared photos with The Sun, which she claims proves her daughter Molly Reid was bitten by bed bugs on the Monday flight. The 38-year-old mother told The Sun the annoying critters were crawling out of the TV frames in the seats in front of her family and the food tray.

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Szilagyi told the flight crew about the issue, but they could not find other seats for her, Molly and her fiance Eric Neilseon, she claims. It made their entire trip uncomfortable, as they had to waste time washing their cloths, cleaning their shoes and treating their sores.

“It’s been really frustrating, this has been horrible and its really ruined our trip,” Szilagyi told The Sun. Their ultimate destination for the trop was 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,” Szilagyi told The Sun. “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.”

Szilagyi told The Sun she wanted to share her story to make sure that British Airways cleans that plane so no one else has a similar experience.

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

A British Airways spokesman told the Sun that the company is sorry for the terrible experience, but noted bed bug reports on planes are rare. “The presence of bed bugs is an issue faced occasionally by hotels and airlines all over the world,” the spokesman said.

It’s true that airplane travelers do have to worry about bed bugs. Last year, British Airways grounded a flight when customers discovered bed bugs.