OTTAWA -- An Air Transat flight from the Dominican Republic to Canada was redirected Wednesday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, overnight after several passengers fell ill, a spokesman said Wednesday.

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

"We don't know what made them sick. It's eight members of the same family that stayed at the same hotel."

"The passengers were taken to hospital upon arrival," he added, while the plane carrying 250 passengers and nine crew was briefly quarantined.

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

The Canadian airline specializes in scheduled and charter flights from Canada to vacation destinations in the Caribbean, United States and Europe.