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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Lifestyle
Milo Boyd Travel Reporter & Cathal Ryan

Airline staff keep flight grounded until passenger cleaned up their mess

Passengers on board a flight were stuck on the tarmac until one customer cleaned up a mess they made.

One flight attendant onboard a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this month "refused” to let the plane take off after they noticed a big mess on the floor in the aisle, a passenger onboard the flight claimed.

An image shared on social media showed a large pile of race spilled all over the floor of the flight.

READ MORE: 'An annoying teen ruined an 11-hour flight by screaming and laughing - so I got revenge'

A passenger, Jennifer Schaper, was on the plane and shred the image of rice spilled on the aisle, claiming that a flight attendant on board walked up and down the aisle asking for whoever was responsible to come forward.

Schaper claimed, via the Mirror, that staff refused to leave the gate until some cleaned up the mess, but no one came forward.

Jennifer shared a picture of the rice (@jenschap/Twitter)

Later in a tweet, Jennifer said that the flight attendant relented and cleaned up the rice herself, but was "MAD" about having to do so.

Schaper tweeted: "She has let us all know that we were not raised right and she is disappointed in all of us.

Southwest Airlines wrote in the thread: "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."

At one point it was covered with a paper towel (@jenschap/Twitter)

However, the question of who is responsible for cleaning up the mess has resulted in some discourse online.

One man explained how he was recently outraged after a flight attendant left his 22-week pregnant wife to go on her ‘hands and knees' to clean up after their toddler.

However, people were unimpressed and backed up the United Airlines crew.

One user asked: "Genuinely curious who should clean up the mess your 2-year-old made?" As a parent of three kids, I am the one responsible for them."

A former flight attendant also agreed, saying she doesn’t think it is the responsibility of the cabin crew to clean up but they don’t think it is the passengers' either.

She told MailOnline: "Crew are not paid to clean and neither are the parents responsible to clean. The airline employs cleaners who come on board once the passengers have all disembarked."

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