An international flight scheduled to travel from Italy to Australia was abruptly canceled last week when a bedbug infestation was discovered in the cabin during the earlier flight — with the airline issuing an apology for the incident. The grounding came after passengers on the nearly 17-hour Qantas journey from Perth to Rome reported being bitten by the insects on Friday, Oct.9, as The Sydney Morning Herald reported."We sincerely apologize 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 [was] identified on a small number of economy seats," Qantas Airways Limited told Fox News Digital.MAJOR AIRLINE ABANDONS 3 KEY CITIES AS PASSENGERS FACE SHRINKING FLIGHT CHOICESPassenger Hailey Bagnall told the TV news program "9News Sydney" that bedbugs were "crawling over our belongings, our clothing, our Qantas blankets — and they were even crawling along the window."The aircraft involved in the incident was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.A long-haul flight was canceled last week (not pictured) when a bedbug infestation was discovered in the cabin.
The airline ordered a deep clean and issued an apology to passengers. (iStock)Other travelers also recounted their experiences to "9News," with one passenger claiming to be "woken by screaming," while another noted that "the bugs just kept coming." As they collected their bags, the passengers discovered the pests were inside their shoes and crawling on their clothing.Bedbugs were "crawling over our belongings, our clothing, our Qantas blankets — and they were even crawling along the window."Travelers first alerted the flight crew about the bedbugs during the initial Sydney-to-Perth leg of the journey, according to "9News."CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWSThe airline said that before departing on the subsequent long-haul leg to Rome, staff took several preventative measures, including deep cleaning th...