Ebola and Other Things You Shouldn't Say (or Do) on Planes

Sometimes it's best to skip the small talk.

"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."

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.

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.