Business class passenger complains of ‘bedbug bites’ on AI’s US-Mumbai flight

A woman passenger, who had travelled with her three children to the city from the US on an Air India flight last week tweeted a disturbing picture of bedbug bites on her arm. Bed bugs on board Air India planes have according to media reports now resulted in flights being temporarily grounded on the Mumbai-Newark (US) route.

Interestingly, the passenger, Saumya Shetty, is not the first flyer to complain about bedbugs on the same flight within a week’s time. She has alleged that despite her complaint to the flight attendant, she was forced to sleep in the same seat and got a seat change only a short while before landing in Mumbai.

“Covered in painful bedbug bites all over my body thanks to business class of #AirIndia is this what you charge for?i only got moved to another seat in the morning when we were landing, it was disgusting! Mind you I was traveling with 3 kids,” Shetty said in a series of tweets tagging the media.

“Traveled business class thinking it would help with three kids. I’m covered with bed bugs bites and it’s been a painful day so far,” she posted.

This isn’t the first instance of a flyer complaining of bedbugs on the AI US-Mumbai flight.

On Friday, news agencies quoted sources as saying that a baby was bitten by bedbugs on the same flight, which left passengers agitated. Another passenger, Pravin Tonsekar, tweeted that his seat, also in the business class, was infested with bedbugs.

“…just arrived from New York on Air India 144 business class with family. All our seats infested with bed bugs. Sir, have heard of bed bugs on trains but shocked to experience on our maharaja and that too business,” Pravin Tonsekar tweeted and tagged the airline and the Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Air India responded to Tonsekar’s tweet to apologise for the incident: “Sharing the details with our maintenance team for corrective measures in this regard.”

Tonsekar was not satisfied with the response, tweeting: “Too late!!! Such a thing should not have happened in the first place. My wife and daughters had to suffer half of the journey sitting in economy seats with broken tables and inoperative TV.”

Another passenger, Vivek Modi, said he could see bed bugs crawling around on the seats.

On Thursday, passengers on a different Air India plane, also heading to Mumbai, had bed bug bites – including an 8-month-old, who allegedly suffered multiple bites during the flight. The traveller also tweeted about a similar experience on 19 July: “My wife and three kids flex business class AI 144 from Newark to Mumbai; now they have bed bug bites all over their body; is this what we paid $10,000 for???”

Air India on Tuesday said that it has carried out extensive servicing of the Boeing 777 which was deployed on the Mumbai-Newark route after reports emerged about the presence of bed bugs in the aircraft's business class seats.

According to a senior airline official, the aircraft was grounded from July 18-19, so that fumigation could be carried out and that the aircraft has subsequently been pressed back into service.

In a statement, the airline on Tuesday said that it has been deeply concerned about reports of “bugs” causing inconvenience to passengers. “The issue has been viewed seriously and every possible step is being taken to closely inspect and further strengthen our system at every level to ensure that such isolated incidents of passenger discomfiture do not affect our consistent performance,” it said.