With hundreds of millions of people taking to the skies each year, sitting side by side in cramped planes, there are few places where the public is more on edge about catching something, anything, be it a harmless cold or a vicious virus.

But whatever happened Thursday night aboard an American Airlines trip from Dallas-Fort Worth to Chicago, Flight 2325 seemed to represent a microcosm of emotions surrounding Ebola, which in recent weeks has incited fear and paranoia throughout the country.

A University of Texas professor who was on the flight said she was outraged by what she contends was a sick passenger who was told by flight attendants worried about Ebola that she would have to stay in the lavatory for the duration of the flight.

"She was making her way to the bathroom and vomited in the aisle," Martha Selby, head of the Austin university's Asian Studies Department, recalled of the passenger who sat a few rows ahead of her. "The flight attendants, I think, overreacted completely. It was just crazy."

But American Airlines counters that the crew was not even considering Ebola, but merely acting to take care of a sick passenger.

"There were no concerns related to Ebola," American Airlines spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said. "Our crew saw a very sick woman that probably had food poisoning or something. She was so sick that she asked to remain in the lavatory for the duration of the flight."

The Thursday flight marked the second known time that Ebola concerns have been raised in as many weeks in regard to an American Airlines flight.

An American Eagle plane was met by paramedics in Midland after the plane's captain told authorities that a passenger had flu-like symptoms and had been vomiting, according to multiple news reports, which said she was taken to the hospital following hazmat procedures.

'One in a billion'

Jack Stelzer, a Houston-based airline consultant, said airlines are like many other aspects of society when it comes to the deadly Ebola virus.

"The overriding thing right now is Ebola," he said. "What are the steps - be it the airlines or hospitals or schools - or any place where there are many, many people in close contact? What are the proper procedures?"

Still, when it comes to air travel, Ebola should not be that much of a concern, he said.

"It is a risk that everyone who flies has to take, but it is kind of like a one in a billion kind of risk," he said.

Ebola has been an especially tense matter in Dallas, as a man recently died there after flying to the United States from Liberia, where he'd been infected.

Two nurses who treated him were infected and are in the hospital, and several other health-care workers are being monitored for signs of the Ebola.

Western Africa has been the epicenter for Ebola, with the Centers for Disease Control urging people to avoid all non-essential travel to Liberia as well as Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Meanwhile, aboard Flight 2325 on Thursday, Selby said that a fellow passenger, who appeared to be in her 40s, was told by a fight attendant that given current public health concerns she'd have to stay in the bathroom for the flight's remaining 45 minutes.

"They told her to stay in the bathroom, and she stayed in the bathroom," Selby said. "They said, 'We can't let you out,'" Selby recalled.

Bag put in plastic

Mohr said the woman had vomited in the aisle as she waited for a rear lavatory to be available and that she also vomited on a flight attendant.

"This was just a sick passenger, and we took care of her," she said. "Our crew did the right thing."

She said the woman was never told she had to stay in the lavatory, although the woman asked to stay in there and remained there as the plane landed.

On the American Airlines flight, attendants took a seat belt extender and cordoned off the very back of the plane where the bathroom was located.

Mohr said it was blocked off simply because it had become soiled with vomit, not because of concerns it was infectious.

When the plane landed, all passengers were told to remain in their seats as emergency personnel boarded the plane and took the woman away.

Her carry-on bag was wrapped in plastic and taken with her, Selby said.

"It was so alarming how it was handled, and it panicked everybody on the airplane."