(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-06 15:28

A plane flight from the Dominican Republic to Canada made an emergency landing in Florida after several passengers fell ill, according to media reports Thursday.

"We redirected the aircraft to Fort Lauderdale for medical reasons," Air Transat Flight 447 spokesman Jean-Michel Laberge said.

Eight passengers were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood as a precaution after the plane landed at about 11 pm ET.

Airport authorities alerted the local health authorities, federal customs officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to the unknown nature of the illness.

Officials from the US Centres for Disease Control were "called in to investigate to make sure it wasn't an airborne illness," Greg Meyer, public information officer for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, said.

Sick passengers, including six adults and two children, were diagnosed later that they were ill as the result of something the family ate and it didn't seem to be contagious.

The quarantine was a standard procedure and the rest of the passengers remained onboard all night. They could serve food and drinks as the plane was parked at the gate.

After a four-hour stopover, the vacation charter Flight 477 from Punta Cana then continued on to Edmonton in western Canada.