Fiance is appalled

[spotty4]

Sunday Fiance was getting ready to depart MSP for IAH. They were just getting closed up and were about to push back from the gate. He gave a look down as he adjusted the rudder pedals and noticed a 1.5 L water bottle wedged behind the pedals!!! And when he weaseled down there to retrieve it, he also found a milk carton!! B/c of some other crew member's carelessness, 76 pax and 4 crew could have died. If anything went wrong on takeoff (e.g. engine failure), he's very sure the rudder would not have been able to move.

He's reporting the incident and hopefully they can track down the crew that signed off the aircraft before them. This flight was first thing in the morning, so there was no visual exchange of crew.

My goodness! Don't people clean up their area before they leave?! Carelessness and malaise can be disgusting and often lead to major accidents. Note to all you pilots and SOs, check behind the rudder pedals. Same is true in your vehicle's brake pedals!