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Southwest flight delayed as passenger makes mess in aisle and attendants insist on cleaning before takeoff

The commuters said that the mess was made almost immediately after they began boarding the plane from Atlanta

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight suffered a delay of more than an hour after someone spilled a pile of rice in the aisle and attendants refused to allow the plane to take off until it was cleaned up. The commuters said that the mess was made almost immediately after they began boarding the plane from Atlanta, Georgia, to Houston, Texas, on Saturday, April 22. 

Jennifer Schaper, who was one of the onboard passengers, shared an image on Twitter, showing a large portion of rice spilled on the floor. "The flight attendant screamed 'Who spilled rice?' and is walking up and down the aisles. They are refusing to leave the gate until someone cleans the rice," she tweeted, explaining that the flight staff was asking for the culprit to come forward. However, since no one confessed the flight crew had to send out for a broom to clean up the spill before the flight could finally leave. Dubbing the ordeal '#RiceGate', Schaper further wrote: "The people in my row and I have now the giggles and she’s looking at us suspiciously."

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The flight attendant later cleaned the spill

While talking about the incident, the passenger said that while the crew waited for the broom, the flight attendant apologized to the travelers for the delay. In a followed up tweet, Schaper revealed that the flight attendant had to eventually clean up the rice herself but she was "MAD" for having to do so. "'We’re cleaning this rice so you don’t have to walk through it and it won’t be an eyesore,' she said over the speaker. 'We apologize, but, again, I don’t think you want to walk through it, so let us just take care of it before we leave,'" she wrote. 

'She has let us all know that we were not raised right'

Schaper then posted an update of the flight ordeal where the mess can be seen getting mopped. "Rice is getting cleaned but she is MAD. She has let us all know that we were not raised right and she is disappointed in all of us," she tweeted. In addition to the mess, Schaper added that the flight was even more delayed because "an oblivious passenger took advantage of #RiceGateto use the bathroom and further delay the flight." She further joked that she and her row-mates had nicknamed the flight "The Voyage of The Damned."

'The whole thing was really comical'

Speaking to KHOU, Schaper said that she believed that the flight attendants are not to be blamed. "It was the end of a long day and apparently they had had a complete crew change. I’m sure they were tired. There had been a delay and we were tired," she said, adding that whoever spilled the rice should've taken responsibility. However, no matter how tense the situation was, Schaper could not help looking at the funny side of it. "The whole thing was really comical and I kind of saw the light side of the situation. We’re all stuck there, we may as well make it funny," she added.