A Virginia family flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from the United States to Europe claims their pricey business-class seats were crawling with bed bugs, which feasted upon the four of them en route and ruined their trip.
As soon as ophthalmologist Romulo Albuquerque and wife Lisandra Garcia realized what was happening, they immediately alerted the flight attendants, who “urged them to keep their voices down to avoid a ‘panic’ on the airplane, according to a federal lawsuit reviewed by The Independent.
The bites produced “large red welts on the children’s necks, torsos, legs and arms,” the family’s complaint states. “Mrs. Garcia had similar rashes on her lower back and legs, and Mr. Albuquerque had a rash on his neck and torso.”
“Due to the visible marks on their skin and unrelenting itchy feeling,” Albuquerque, Garcia, and their two sons “were unable to enjoy their vacation,” according to the complaint filed Thursday in Roanoke federal court.
It says the marks “did not begin to fade until after the Albuquerque family returned” home to Roanoke.
“To this day,” the complaint contends, “Mrs. Garcia has scars on her lower back where she was bitten.”
The family booked their tickets through Delta; the flight was a code-share operated by KLM, on a KLM aircraft. Both carriers are named as defendants in the suit.
Attorneys Matt Broughton and Jared Tuck, who are representing the Albuquerques, told The Independent that their firm tried to settle the issue without going to court but that KLM and Delta have continued to ignore their attempts.
“Therefore, we filed suit to assert this deserving family’s legal rights, and we will continue to move forward until the family is treated fairly for what happened to them,” they said.
In an email on Friday, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant emphasized that the “allegations at issue relate to flights not operated by Delta Air Lines,” and said the airline “will review the complaint and respond accordingly in due course.”
A KLM spokeswoman said the company was “unable to comment on the specific allegations at this time,” but will take it up via “the appropriate legal channels.”
On March 21, the Albuquerques departed Roanoke aboard Delta flight DL 5087, touching down about 90 minutes later at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the complaint explains. There, they would catch a KLM flight to Amsterdam, then connect to Belgrade, the family’s final destination.
The four were going to visit family and friends in the Serbian capital, and Albuquerque, a frequent flyer with Delta, had booked the tickets, with a face value of $8,800, through the carrier’s SkyMiles program, according to the complaint.
The first leg of the journey went by “without issue,” the complaint continues. Next, it says, they boarded flight DL 9667 to Amsterdam, with Albuquerque and Garcia in seats 12H and 12K and their children seated in the row directly behind them.
“Approximately two hours into the flight, Mrs. Garcia began feeling like bugs were crawling on her and that she was being bitten,” the complaint states. “It was at this point that she realized that bugs were crawling on her light-colored sweater.”
When they notified the cabin crew, they shushed the pair so as not to cause a commotion, the complaint alleges. So, it goes on, the two snapped photos and took videos of the insects on Garcia’s clothing and “in the creases” of their seats.
“During the flight, everyone in the Albuquerque family was bitten multiple times by the bugs that had infested the plane’s cabin,” according to the complaint, which specifies that the bugs were indeed bed bugs. “Prior to landing in Amsterdam, the flight attendants again urged Dr. Albuquerque and Mrs. Garcia not to tell anyone about the infestation because, if they did so, they would miss their connecting flight to Serbia.”
The flight attendants gave the family plastic bags for their personal belongings, and they boarded another KLM plane for the two-and-a-half-hour flight to Belgrade, the complaint says. When they sat down, the four were “still feeling the discomfort and incessant itchiness of the bug bites,” according to the complaint.
After arriving at their destination, the Albuquerques washed all of their clothing in boiling water in an attempt to kill the remaining bed bugs. A doctor friend advised them how to treat the discomfort of the multitude of bites, which covered expansive swaths of their skin, but the “recovery process was slow,” and wrecked the family’s trip, the complaint states.
A week later, the Albuquerques took their kids to a pediatric clinic, which prescribed topical steroids and an antihistamine, according to the complaint. It says a doctor there confirmed the bites were from bed bugs, and recommended the family deploy “bug bombs” in their home and car, to ensure they killed any remaining insects.
“The doctor also provided the children with notes indicating that they could return to school, noting that they were ‘not contagious’ despite the visible bite marks and welts on their skin,” the complaint states. “As a direct and proximate result of the bite marks and rashes, [the children] suffered great embarrassment at school.”
The Albuquerques do not know if the KLM crew ever told any other passengers about the alleged infestation, the complaint maintains. However, it says, they later learned that the flight attendants submitted a formal grievance about it to KLM.
Bed bugs aboard aircraft are “more common on planes than people like to admit,” one expert told Fortune earlier this year after Turkish Airlines passengers said they had found bed bugs on their planes. “You get a lot of bedbugs and dust mites just because people are sitting on fabric. I mean realistically, it's a haven for them.”
Last year, a passenger flying American Airlines from New York City to Detroit went viral on Reddit after claiming they discovered a bed bug crawling up their leg.
Nicole Carpenter, president of Black Pest Prevention, recommends travelers choose a window seat over an aisle, because the odds of being exposed to bed bugs by other passengers walking by is lower.
“There’s just less traffic over there,” she told Fodor’s Travel.
As a result of their own bites, the Albuquerques have suffered “rashes, discomfort, itching, pain and suffering, inconvenience, anxiety, mental anguish, anger, fear, humiliation and embarrassment,” their complaint states. They have also “incurred medical expenses to treat their injuries, and due to medical concerns… had to dispose of their infested clothing and personal items.”
The family is now seeking compensatory damages of $200,000, plus interest.
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