So, A Minor Aisle Rice Spill Apparently Caused Southwest To Delay A Flight

A woman named Jennifer Schaper recently dished about a viral food-related travel mishap on Southwest Airlines in a thread on Twitter. The first tweet in the saga, which she nicknamed "Rice Gate," shows an image of a pile of yellow rice. Schaper says that the flight attendant yelled, "Who spilled the rice?" From there, the flight was delayed, which she seemed to find more comedic than irritating. In her thread, she tweeted about "having the giggles" and how "mad" the flight attendant was, and how unfortunately someone used the bathroom during this and further delayed the flight. Other Twitter users were quick to comment about how "lazy" the passengers were for not simply cleaning up the rice, while others remarked on Southwest Airlines' reputation: "SW is pathetic," one said.

From the initial image to follow-up comments about unruly passengers and some not-so-friendly flight attendants (Schaper posted that her flight attendant "let us all know we were not raised right and she is disappointed in all of us"), some users agreed things had snowballed to the extreme, while others saw the reality of in-flight safety. It's hard to say who's in the wrong here. What we really want to know is, what type of rice was it? We know that's not really what this is about, but we just want to know — Spanish rice?

The reality of flying is that flight attendants aren't there to serve you, they are there for your safety. Clearly, a big pile of rice in the aisle is a mess that any adult would (hopefully) agree should be cleaned up. The flight attendants' approach may have been a bit over the top in terms of the scolding, but in-flight safety is serious. One Twitter user agreed, "I'm no fan of southwest... but, um, the FA was 1000% correct!" Southwest might rank poorly on our U.S airline food list, but it was given a 7/7 for safety by AirlineRatings.com.

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

If you've ever been on a flight, you're most likely familiar with the safety protocol of having to keep the aisles clear of bags and feet. Although seemingly innocuous, something squishy like rice is probably more dangerous than it seems. If someone were to slip on that rice there could be an injury and as we said, flight attendants are there for your safety. As much as the original user wrote about the staff talking to the passengers like they're children, passengers need to remember that they're not the ones in control, flight attendants are. Airline crew are here for the safety of all on board. But seriously, what kind of rice was it?