Ebola and Other Things You Shouldn't Say (or Do) on Planes
Sometimes it's best to skip the small talk.
— -- Ebola. Bomb. Knee Defender.
The list of taboo topics on airplanes keeps growing, and if you break one of the unwritten rules, you risk terrifying other passengers or, even worse, getting bounced from the flight. That's what one New Hampshire woman says happened to her when she tweeted about her pilot taking a sobriety test before a JetBlue flight out of Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
"I'm standing here at 1 a.m. in the morning because I was denied access to the flight tonight," Lisa Carter-Knight told ABC's Philadelphia station WPVI at the airport.
The pilot demanded the test after a passenger made a joke about hoping the delayed plane was stocked with liquor, which the pilot misconstrued as an accusation that he had been drinking, Carter-Knight told the station. JetBlue confirmed in a statement that the pilot passed the sobriety test, adding that it was a "precautionary measure" because of "a customer's accusation of a pilot being intoxicated."
"It is not our practice to remove a customer for expressing criticism of their experience in any medium," JetBlue said in a statement today. "We will remove a customer if they are disruptive and the crew evaluates that there is a risk of escalation which could lead to an unsafe environment. The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly."
The customer received a refund in this case and chose to fly on another carrier, JetBlue noted.
The lesson? Don't say the word "drunk" near your pilot. Speaking of words to skip, you should also steer clear of "Ebola."
Passengers were on high alert on an American Eagle flight Tuesday night from Dallas to Midland, Texas, when a woman became violently ill and was vomiting -- a well-known symptom of the deadly disease. The staff gave flyers face masks and contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while the woman was rushed to Midland Memorial Hospital, ABC affiliate KMID reported. The hospital confirmed in a statement to ABC News that the patient does not have Ebola.
Phew.
The flight problems come after a string of planes were forced to make unscheduled landings because of passengers getting into fights over reclining seats, including one man who used a gadget called a Knee Defender to block the seat in front of him from leaning back.
In fact, lots of things can cause problems on planes. A New Orleans woman grabbed headlines in 2011 when she claimed a Southwest Airlines gate agent told her she was "too fat to fly." A passenger has been booted from a flight for smelling bad and a blind man was once kicked off a plane because of his guide dog not being able to fit beneath the sit in front of him.
And while we all know "bomb" is on top of the list of things you don't say on airplanes, a man with Tourette syndrome who can't help but repeat the word as a verbal tic was banned from a JetBlue Airlines flight last year.
So what can you talk about on airplanes? We'd say stick to the weather -- unless it's snowing, because then you're probably not going anywhere for a while.
