MAILONLINE.COM - A British Airways passenger badly bitten by 'bed bugs' on up to two of the airline's long-haul flights has set up a website to tell the world of her nightmare ordeal.
Fed up with the poor response by BA's customer services department, business executive Zane Selkirk, 28, who lives in Los Angeles and has dual British and US nationality, posted her story and graphic photographs of the bites all over her body on her specially created Internet site.
Miss Selkirk, an executive with computer giant Yahoo's media group, writes on her website - called www.ba-bites.com - that she set it up 'after two horrendous flights' taken with BA in January and February.
As a result of her online protest, BA took two Boeing 747-400 Jumbo jets out of service and confirmed bugs had been found on one of them.
The plane has been fumigated and subsequently put back into service.
BA said it had written to Miss Selkirk, apologized for her experience and treatment, launched a full investigation, and insisted they were taking the issue 'seriously'.
It said it had found no evidence of bugs on the second aircraft.
The revelations will certainly resonate throughout the US, where there has been a massive resurgence in bed-bug outbreaks.
The mites are invading public schools at an alarming rate, with 1,700 confirmed cases reported in New York City's schools alone in the last five months.
The figure is on track to triple last year's total of 1,019 cases in the city.
A spokesman from the US Environmental Protection Agency said that while in the past the infestations were concentrated in 'hot spots', they were now spreading all over the country.
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