![\"Hamish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07ef20e984b872b4ba7b8d62f82c29b34424604d.png\")
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October 16, 2026 \u2014 3:30pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson revealed the company was aware of the presence of bed bugs on flight QF5 before it departed Perth for a 16-hour flight to Rome last Friday.<\/p>\n Hudson also revealed the company removed seat covers while the plane was in Perth to remove the bugs, but conceded that effort wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n Passengers of Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight QF5 woke to screams when the bed bugs started crawling across their bodies, clothes and bags during the flight to Rome.<\/p>\n The Perth to Rome journey was the second leg of a service originating in Sydney.<\/p>\n Passengers on the Sydney to Perth flight told media they had spotted bed bugs on the plane and reported it to cabin crew.<\/p>\n Hudson, who was in Perth on Friday to launch a new Jetstar and Qantas steward training facility, said the company did respond to the Sydney to Perth reports.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first leg we did respond. We actually removed the [seat] covers on that and unfortunately the actions that we took weren\u2019t effective in completely removing it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The return flight to Perth was cancelled so the plane could undergo a deep clean in Sydney.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have done another change in covers, we\u2019ve done a deep clean and a deep sterilisation of that aircraft,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe covers and also the carpets will be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n Hudson apologised to passengers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is clearly a very unfortunate situation and distressing for those customers that were impacted and my apology to all of those customers that were impacted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201c[They were] crawling over our belongings, our clothing, our Qantas blankets, and they were even crawling along the window,\u201d passenger Hailey Bagnall told 9 News earlier this week.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the way to getting our bags, the bugs just kept coming.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were in my husband\u2019s shoes, crawling up our legs, crawling on our jumpers.\u201d<\/p>\n Hudson said the new facility in Welshpool will see 1200 staff trained in Western Australia.<\/p>\n The Qantas to Rome flight is the only one of three long-haul direct Europe flights still operating, with the London and Paris flights rerouted through Singapore because of Middle East airspace closures.<\/p>\n Hudson said the Paris to Perth direct flight will return \u201crelatively quickly\u201d but the company will continue rerouting Perth to Paris via Singapore because it is a longer flight that burns more fuel.<\/p>\n \u201cBy stopping in at Singapore that gives us the ability to uplift more customers per flight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close![\"Passengers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792177096_729_e4cd02d1306c14a1d4d427bd818c4829177e3fe7.jpeg\")
Passengers on a Qantas flight were delayed due to bed bugs.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Hamish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792177097_786_07ef20e984b872b4ba7b8d62f82c29b34424604d.png\")
Hamish Hastie<\/a> is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 16, 2026 \u2014 3:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-930567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}