A flight attendant of South-west Airlines “refused to let a plane take off” until passengers cleaned up the mess they’d made in the aisle.
Passenger Jennifer Schaper posted details of the event on social media earlier this month.
In a Twitter thread, Schaper said: “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.”
In a second tweet, Ms. Schaper named the incident #RiceGate and added: “Update: they are still refusing to leave until the rice has been cleaned. They are sending out a broom. #RiceGate”
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. pic.twitter.com/f5SfdjZcGr— Jennifer Schaper (@jenschap) April 15, 2023
Additionally, Schaper included a video in which the flight attendant apologizes for the delay but defends her course of action by telling the passengers, “You don’t want to walk through it.”
Schaper claims in a subsequent tweet that the flight attendant had started correcting the passengers.
“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,” Schaper wrote.
There was then a further delay to the flight taking off once the rice had been cleaned up as “another loud angry woman went to the bathroom during #RiceGate and we still can’t take off because she is not at her seat,.”
When the aircraft eventually took off, Schaper complained that “they didn’t give us beverage service. I believe that it was punishment.
Southwest responded in the comments, saying: “We’re sorry that our Crew was unable to provide onboard refreshments due to bumpy travel conditions.
“Safety is always our number one priority, but we hope that we can make it up to you next time! Thank you for bearing there with us, Jennifer.”
