Air passengers quarantined after Air Canada flight

Dozens of passengers aboard an Air Canada flight from Tel Aviv were briefly quarantined upon their arrival in Toronto.

Dozens of passengers aboard an Air Canada flight from Tel Aviv were briefly quarantined upon their arrival in Toronto overnight after some of the travellers became ill, authorities said on Wednesday.

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"A number of people were ill on the flight," said Scott Armstrong, a spokesman for the Toronto airport, Canada's largest aviation hub. Almost 200 passengers disembarked from Air Canada Flight 085.

Seventy-five passengers were initially detained. However quarantine officials and emergency responders determined that 47 of them had no symptoms and were allowed to leave the airport, said the Public Health Agency of Canada.

"We didn't know anything," one man told broadcaster CTV. "We came down from the plane and we were segregated. We had masks on, white suits on, and sat there for an hour until they told us to go home."

Public Health Agency of Canada spokeswoman Jacinthe Perras said in an email three passengers who were part of a tour group were ill and suffering from acute gastroenteritis.

Their symptoms included vomiting, nausea and diarrohea, she said. They have been moved to a hospital for further assessment and treatment, said Perras. Meanwhile, Air Canada was urged to thoroughly clean its jet to ensure potentially contaminated areas are disinfected, she said.