The Aporia · Qantas removed seat covers before Perth to Rome bed bug flight

Qantas removed seat covers before Perth to Rome bed bug flight

Read the original at The Sydney Morning Herald ↗

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Hastie, H. (2026, October 16). Qantas removed seat covers before Perth to Rome bed bug flight. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/qantas-removed-seat-covers-before-perth-to-rome-bed-bug-flight-20261016-p616aa.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Quick Summary

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson announced that bed bugs were present on flight QF5 from Perth to Rome, which led the company to remove seat covers during layovers but failed to eliminate all pests. Passengers reported being disturbed by the insects crawling over them and their belongings during the 16-hour journey. Hudson apologized for the incident and confirmed a thorough cleaning and destruction of affected materials on the aircraft before its return trip from Rome to Perth.

Written by AI on 2026-10-16, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

A Qantas flight from Perth to Rome was cancelled after bed bugs were found in the aircraft's economy seats. The incident occurred on October 9 when passengers reported being bitten during a nearly 17-hour journey. The airline deep-cleaned and fumigated the Boeing 787 Dreamliner before cancelling the return flight from Rome to Perth on October 10. Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson confirmed that seat covers were removed in Perth, but this measure was insufficient, leading to further sterilization efforts. Passengers affected by the cancellation were accommodated and rebooked within 48 hours of their original departure time. The Perth-to-Rome route is popular for its direct connection between Australia and Italy.

Written for “Qantas Bed Bug Incident” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 5 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 5% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

I was on the Qantas bed bug flight from hell - they crawled over our clothes, blankets and up our legs and the airline ignored our warnings Same event

Daily Mail

Hedges 2 of 22 claims Outlet record 69/100

What to do if you find bed bugs on your flight Same event

ABC News (AU)

Hedges 3 of 27 claims Outlet record 67/100

Bed bugs ground Qantas Rome-to-Perth flight Same event

The Sydney Morning Herald

Hedges 3 of 19 claims Outlet record 61/100

Bedbugs found in plane's economy seats force major airline to cancel flight Different event

Fox News

Hedges 1 of 18 claims Outlet record 68/100

“Article A describes passengers waking up to bed bugs during the Perth to Rome flight, while Article B discusses the cancellation of a subsequent Rome-to-Perth flight due to the infestation.”

Passengers stranded in Italy after bedbug outbreak grounds long-haul flight to Australia Different event

The Independent

Hedges 2 of 15 claims Outlet record 59/100

“While both articles describe bedbug outbreaks on Qantas flights, Article A refers to a flight from Italy to Australia with passengers complaining after takeoff, while Article B discusses a Perth to Rome flight where seat covers were removed in Perth before the flight.”

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

1 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

61/100

The Sydney Morning Herald's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Other

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-10-16 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Sydney Morning Herald · 6022 article(s) · 15 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 15 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Hamish Hastie

31 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

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2026-10-19 · assertive framing · ‘A bad call’: Greens rift deepens over Steele-John allegations

🔮 The return flight to Perth was cancelled so the plane could undergo a deep clean in Sydney.

2026-10-16 · assertive framing · Qantas removed seat covers before Perth to Rome bed bug flight

Also by Hamish Hastie

WA minister shares vile voice message as concerns grow over MPs’ safety

2026-11-03 · The Sydney Morning Herald

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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 31 articles by Hamish Hastie →

Topics

Paris Perth Qantas Rome Sydney

Subjects

Perth GPE · 9× Hudson PERSON · 5× Qantas ORG · 4× Rome GPE · 4× Sydney GPE · 4× Paris GPE · 3× Singapore GPE · 3× Boeing ORG · 1× Jetstar ORG · 1× Vanessa Hudson PERSON · 1×

Narrative

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. The Perth to Rome journey was the second leg of a service originating in Sydney.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-16

🔮 The return flight to Perth was cancelled so the plane could undergo a deep clean in Sydney.

2026-10-16 · The Sydney Morning Herald

Qantas removed seat covers before Perth to Rome bed bug flight · assertive framing

Claims (19 extracted, 1 hedged)

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. asserted

it → reveal → Rome

Hudson also revealed the company removed seat covers while the plane was in Perth to remove the bugs, but conceded that effort wasn’t enough. asserted

effort → reveal → bugs

journey → wake → Sydney

Passengers on the Sydney to Perth flight told media they had spotted bed bugs on the plane and reported it to cabin crew. asserted

they → tell → crew

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. asserted

company → launch → reports

“The first leg we did respond. asserted

we → respond → ?

We actually removed the [seat] covers on that and unfortunately the actions that we took weren’t effective in completely removing it,” she said. asserted

she → remove → it

The return flight to Perth was cancelled so the plane could undergo a deep clean in Sydney. uncertain

plane → cancel → Sydney

“We have done another change in covers, we’ve done a deep clean and a deep sterilisation of that aircraft,” she said. asserted

she → do → aircraft

“The covers and also the carpets will be destroyed.” asserted

covers → destroy → ?

Hudson apologised to passengers. asserted

Hudson → apologise → passengers

“This 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,” she said. asserted

she → impact → customers

“[They were] crawling over our belongings, our clothing, our Qantas blankets, and they were even crawling along the window,” passenger Hailey Bagnall told 9 News earlier this week. asserted

Bagnall → crawl → News

“On the way to getting our bags, the bugs just kept coming. asserted

bugs → get → bags

“They were in my husband’s shoes, crawling up our legs, crawling on our jumpers.” asserted

They → crawl → jumpers

Hudson said the new facility in Welshpool will see 1200 staff trained in Western Australia. asserted

staff → say → Australia

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. asserted

flights → operate → closures

Hudson said the Paris to Perth direct flight will return “relatively quickly” but the company will continue rerouting Perth to Paris via Singapore because it is a longer flight that burns more fuel. asserted

that → say → fuel

“By stopping in at Singapore that gives us the ability to uplift more customers per flight,” she said. asserted

she → stop → flight