Reports of bedbugs on Turkish Airlines planes have lately surfaced. Travelers have described how they discovered the parasitic bugs on the carrier’s aircraft, with some posting photos of bug bites.
Turkish Airlines has a wide international network. In fact, the airline just earned a Guinness World Record for “Most Countries Flown by an Airline.”
Bedbugs on Turkish Airlines flights
The New York Times reported on cases of passengers finding bedbugs aboard Turkish Airlines flights. Some passengers claimed that the flight attendants rejected their complaints about the pests.
Patience Titcombe, one of the passengers, stated that she was traveling from Johannesburg to Istanbul last March when she encountered the bug. When she stood up to use the restroom, she discovered a little insect on her seat. Titcombe was going to flick it when a friend told her it was a bedbug.
When the flight attendant was made aware of the issue, she removed the insect while dismissing the passenger’s concern that it was a bedbug. Titcombe told The New York Times:
“I had to strip down at the airport and change clothes because I have kids — what if I brought bedbugs home?”
In October, another passenger, Matthew Myers, who was going to San Francisco from Istanbul with his fiancée, reported that the passenger seated next to him tapped him on the shoulder to alert him of the bedbugs on his seat as well as those falling from the ceiling.
When they discovered bedbugs, the passenger stated that several other passengers on the aircraft requested to be moved to different seats. One of the passengers even relocated to an empty flight attendant jump seat as additional bedbugs were discovered to tumble down.
One of the flight attendants told the passengers that she had made an official complaint about the situation. As recompense, Myers received a 10% discount on future flights until the end of last year.
In another case, Kristin Bourgeois, a passenger flying from Washington, D.C., to Istanbul, reported seeing bedbugs crawling about the plane. The New York Times reports her as stating,
“Before departure, I noticed a bug crawling on my blanket. When I found another on the pillow, I realized it was a bedbug.”
Simple Flying has contacted Turkish Airlines for comment, and we will update this article whenever we receive a response.
How are airplanes cleaned?
Airplanes are cleaned on a regular basis, which should help to keep pests and insects at bay. When an airplane lands, it is frequently cleaned by a specialist cleaning team or, in some cases, by the cabin crew itself before to the following trip.
This normally entails cleaning the galley spaces, keeping the lavatory clean, and removing trash. However, airplanes go through a more comprehensive nighttime cleaning, which includes adequately cleaning the passenger seats.
Then there’s deep cleaning, which requires an aircraft to be grounded temporarily because it involves removing the seat sections to clean the interiors of the seat, compartments, cabinets, and storage places. Specialized equipment may be utilized to facilitate a deep clean. Simple Flying has written extensively about this in the article below.
Turkish Airlines’ huge network
Turkish Airlines has a massive worldwide network that connects 131 countries on all six continents. It was recently acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the “Most Countries Flown by an Airline” after launching a new route to Santiago, Chile.
It now offers 26 destinations in the Americas, including 15 in the United States alone. Some of these include well-known destinations like New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles International, San Francisco, and Miami.
Turkish Airlines also operates 45 weekly flights (up to seven per day) between Istanbul and London Heathrow Airport. This is an important route with up to 26 daily flights. James Pearson, Simple Flying’s route analyst, has gone into detail about this in the post below.