Turkish Airlines: Passengers report that they were bugged on flights of

Incredibly reportedly, 36-year-old Patience Titcombe from Finix, U.S.A., was attacked during a flight, according to the New York Times. As reported in their report, 36-year-old Patience Titcombe from Finix, U.S.A., shortly after she boarded the Turkish Airlines flight from Johannesburg to Istanbul in March 2024 observed a small insect, which turned out to be a bug, crawling into her seat when she got up to go to the toilet. CORVERSE “I almost threw it away, but my friend stopped me and said: “This is a bug” said Titcombe, who realized her friend was right and photographed the insect in her seat. She then called the flight attendant, who got rid of the bug. When Titcombe and her friend informed the flight attendant about the bug but she reassured them. “Did I have to undress at the airport and change clothes because I have children – and if I brought bugs home?” said Mrs. Titcombe. After publishing her experience on many social media channels, she said other users in a Facebook travel team reported similar experiences. ADVERSE In October, two more passengers reported similar incidents. Matthew Myers, 28, from San Francisco, was traveling from Istanbul to San Francisco when he saw bugs falling from the roof to the seats. As he reported, several passengers asked to move, with one ending up in the flight attendant seat. According to Mr Myers, the crew submitted an official report on the incident. Three weeks later, Kristin Bourgeois, 37, a teacher in Malaysia, spotted bugs on a flight from Washington to Istanbul. “Before takeoff, I saw an insect crawling into my blanket,” he said. After tracking another bug on her pillow, she recorded 13 bites on her body after the flight. How the company reacted For airline passengers, there are rules on issues such as delays and cancellations, but not on insect attacks. The main appeal of passengers is through the customer service departments of airlines or, if not possible, through Justice. Turkish Airlines, operating a fleet of nearly 400 aircraft and serving more than 300 destinations, claims to perform general cleaning prior to each flight and deep cleaning every 21 days. However, passengers have questioned the effectiveness of these procedures. The operator offered Mr Myers a 10% discount on future travel, which was valid until December 2024. This matched the compensation offered to an X user, who claimed to have suffered bug bites on a Turkish Airlines flight in August 2024 and sent relevant photos to the airline. Titcombe, via Facebook and email, said Turkish Airlines did not coordinate its responses. Although it provided details of its flight, the company claimed that “there was no disturbance”. Similar was the experience of Mrs. Bourgeois, whose flight history was removed from the company’s application when she tried to file a complaint. After Mrs Bourgeois filed her complaint, the airline reported in an email that it required a “medical report approved by a doctor with a signature, stamp and date” prior to the investigation. When she tried to follow up, Mrs Bourgeois said that the delegates claimed they could not locate her reservation, then suddenly found her and hung up the phone. Her flight history was subsequently removed from the mobile airline’s application, she said. On 3 December, the airline offered Mrs Bourgeois 5,000 miles if she could not provide medical documents. The problem in the travel sector Bugs are a frequent problem in the travel sector. In 2023, Paris faced a widespread outbreak during Fashion Week, with bugs appearing on means of transport and hotels. That same year, South Korea launched a nationwide prevention campaign targeting transport hubs. The bugs live in mattresses, bed linen, carpets and clothes and can easily be carried with luggage. Typically they bite at night, leaving clusters of lumps in the skin that can cause itching, redness and swelling and burning. It is also difficult to get rid of them, with people having to seal all of their things in plastic bags or endure multiple undersmoking. Addressing bugs in planes is extremely demanding, according to Rob Tuck, chairman of Jet Research. Removing an aircraft for disinfection takes 2-5 days and can cost $75,000-125,000. The problem is exacerbated by rapid rotations of routes and different climate zones in which aircraft fly. What the aircraft cleaning experts say Although most often associated with houses and apartments in large cities, bugs on planes are not entirely unusual, according to Reuven Noyman, owner of NYC Steam Cleaning, which offers cleanup services for private planes. “They are more common on planes than people want to admit,” Noyman said. Bugs may be extremely difficult to get rid of, often hyposuffering is required in order to eliminate an infection. However, planes cannot be easily disinfected, because chemicals that kill bugs often come in powder form, which could stick to the cabin’s electrical cables and cause damage, Noyman said.