A flight attendant allegedly refused to let the plane take off after a passenger left a big mess in the middle of the aisle, insisting that the customer clean it themselves.
Statistically speaking, flying is the safest way to travel - but judging by the amount of mess and seat-swapping debates lately, it definitely isn't the least annoying.
If we're being completely candid, a delayed flight is annoying to absolutely everyone because nobody wants to spend an extended period of time in an airport.
What is often worse than that is being stuck onboard the plane as it can't take off - and one passenger kept one aircraft grounded after making a mess.
The entire ordeal was documented on Twitter by Jennifer Schaper, who first penned: "Because my travels seem to involve unintentional comedy: Just boarded the plane and somebody spilled food. 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."
The picture supporting the caption shows a pretty substantial mess in the middle of the aisle as somebody had clearly dropped their food.
The flight attendant was clearly having none of it, while Jennifer managed to see the funny side to the pretty extraordinary delay to her flight.
Dubbing the ordeal "#RiceGate", Jennifer followed up: "Update: The people in my row and I have now the giggles and she’s looking at us suspiciously."
Even after the mess had been cleaned, the nightmare still wasn't over. "Update: Rice is cleaned but another loud angry woman went to the bathroom during #RiceGate and we still can’t take off because she is not at her seat. My row mates have nicknamed this flight the Voyage of the Damned," Jennifer said.
Another update explained that the flight attendants on the SouthWest airlines flight didn't offer a beverage service as there was turbulence, though Jennifer believes it was punishment for the rice.
It would seem that some were sympathetic towards the flight attendant, as one person penned: "Flight attendants are not there as housekeeping staff. They are there for your safety. You wouldn't be making fun of them if they were trying to help you get off during an emergency. They work long hours & deal with terrible people! They don't get paid until the door is shut."
Though some believed that the staff members overreacted as somebody wrote: "How would anyone clean it up? I would apologize for spilling, but no way would I get on my hands and knees in an airplane to clean that. Get a broom already and take care of your customers. Obviously the FA was out of line as nobody would tell them who spilled."
Jennifer further explained that she did not see who dropped the rice and that she believes they should have cleaned it up themselves.
But she added: "However, SWA staff was out of line in how they handled the situation and continued to delay an already delayed flight."
