Passengers Say Turkish Airlines Flights Have Unwelcome Guests: Bedbugs

01.01.2025 - 12:39 / nytimes.com

Shortly after boarding her Turkish Airlines flight from Johannesburg to Istanbul last March, Patience Titcombe, 36, from Phoenix, noticed a small bug crawling on her seat when she got up to use the restroom.

“I almost flicked it away,” she said, “But my friend stopped me and said, ‘That’s a bedbug.’” Ms. Titcombe, who had experience with the bugs when she lived in Philadelphia, realized her friend was right and photographed the bug on her seat.

She then called over the flight attendant, who disposed of the bug. When Ms. Titcombe and her friend confronted the flight attendant about its being a bedbug, she said, the attendant dismissed their concern.

“I had to strip down at the airport and change clothes because I have kids — what if I brought bedbugs home?” Ms. Titcombe said. She said her complaints to Turkish Airlines after her flight were met with denials, despite her photographic evidence. After posting about her experience on multiple social media channels, Ms. Titcombe said other users in a Facebook travel group reported similar experiences.

In October, two other travelers said they encountered bedbugs on the airline’s flights. On Oct. 5, Matthew Myers and his girlfriend were flying from Istanbul to San Francisco when Mr. Myers, 28, from San Francisco, said the passenger seated next to him tapped him on the shoulder to show him there were bedbugs on the seats and falling from the ceiling. Mr. Myers said he saw bugs fall onto the person’s lap. “Multiple passengers were asking to move seats after discovering bugs,” Mr. Myers said. According to his account, one passenger relocated to the flight attendant jump seat when bugs were seen falling from the ceiling. He said a flight attendant told the passengers she had filed an official complaint during the flight.