Browns allegedly 'trash' plane back to Cleveland

According to an article on Liveandletsfly.com, The Cleveland Browns allegedly trashed their United Airlines flight from West Virginia back to Cleveland. 

Flight UA1893 was supposed to depart from Washington DC and head to San Francisco Monday but was delayed 36 minutes due to a major cleanup. The gate agents explained to impatient passengers waiting to board their flight that the plane ‘had been used to charter a professional sports team earlier that day.’

Once passengers were aboard, the pilot explained that “It was the most disgusting he’s seen a plane in his career.” He even said the plane was ‘full of garbage, spilled food and drink everywhere, etc.” 

Passengers also allegedly found specialty food menus displaying the Cleveland Browns logo in the seat back pockets. 

Matthew Klint, the author of the Liveandletfly.com article, had a few questions after reading these allegations. 

• The flight operated from Cleveland (CLE) to Washington (IAD) as UA2553 – it appears this was an empty leg, but why? Was the charter so last-minute that the aircraft had to wastefully be ferried between a United focus city (and former hub) and a United hub?
• Why wasn’t the aircraft cleaned in CLE, where it sat for 2.5 hours, or in IAD, where it sat for more than four hours, prior to the IAD-SFO flight?
• Do sports teams always trash planes?
• It does seems there were a couple of missed opportunities to clean the plane which would have avoided a delay.

I also have some questions. 

If this truly was the ‘most disgusting’ the pilot has ever seen a plane, then why was the departure only delayed 36 minutes? The clean-up would have been far more extensive than 30-plus minutes if it had been disgusting. It takes longer than that to de-ice the wings when leaving Cleveland Hopkins in the winter. 

If United were chartering the Cleveland Browns, I would assume there would be an agreement between the airline and the team about releasing that type of information to the general public, especially if the plane were left in that condition. 

I’m not calling the pilot or the flight crew liars, but to call that ‘the most disgusting' plane they have ever seen might be a reach.

I don’t doubt the plane was a mess, but to the extent the pilot described it as is hard to believe. 

We live in an age where everything is filmed and documented. I’ve seen plenty of videos where people completely forget they’re in public and act like the plane is their dorm room. 

I think this story will blow over as long as there isn’t a video of Myles Garrett yelling about people on the flight not being real or Nick Chubb claiming there's a man on the wing.