Southwest flight to Texas delayed. The reason? A mess dubbed ‘RiceGate,’ passenger says

A flight out of the busiest airport in the world was held up by a clump of rice.

That’s what one Southwest Airlines passenger en route from Atlanta to Houston wrote on Twitter on April 15.

“The flight attendant screamed ‘who spilled rice?’ and is walking up and down the aisles,” the traveler tweeted alongside a photo of the food, which appeared to have been dumped in the middle of the aisle during the boarding process.

“They are refusing to leave the gate until someone cleans the rice,” the passenger wrote.

A flight attendant later covered up the mess with a paper towel and reiterated to flyers that they would be grounded until someone remedied the rice situation, the passenger told KHOU.

When no one came forward, the flight crew decided to take the matter into its own hands.

After acquiring a broom, an attendant swept up the food, but not without scolding the plane full of people, the passenger tweeted.

“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. #RiceGate,” the passenger tweeted.

The flight eventually took off after about an hourlong delay, according to KHOU.

The whole, strange ordeal was “more comical than anything,” the passenger tweeted.

A spokesperson for Southwest Airlines told McClatchy News that they had not received any reports of the situation.

“Our flight attendants do a tremendous job of ensuring the safety and comfort of our customers,” the spokesperson added.

This story was originally published April 21, 2023 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Southwest flight to Texas delayed. The reason? A mess dubbed ‘RiceGate,’ passenger says."