It was a long night for passengers of an Air Canada flight after airport officials held them back because of a health scare.

Passengers who were detained for a couple of hours said they received very little information about what was going on.

"We didn't know anything, that's the problem," one man told CTV Toronto Tuesday night. "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."

The problem started on the plane as a number of people became sick aboard flight 085, travelling to Toronto from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Staff at Pearson International Airport took 75 passengers out of 201 people travelling on the flight aside to have them checked out by a medical team.

They were taken to a separate room and some of them were told to put on face masks and white suits. After an initial assessment, 47 of those passengers were allowed to leave and go through customs.

Scott Armstrong, a spokesperson for the Toronto Airport Authority, said the incident was treated as a "worst case scenario."

"Some of the passengers were asked to get into Tyvek suits as a precaution which turned out to be unnecessary, and as they were assessed, Public Health realized it was an unnecessary precaution and that stopped quickly," he said. "Passengers were released once they were deemed to not be in any danger."

Eight people between the ages of 18 and 26 became sick during the flight, Health Canada officials told CTV Toronto. Three of them were taken to hospital after the flight landed.

The three were in Israel as part of an organized excursion put on by Birthright, an organization that brings young Jewish adults to Israel to learn about the country.

It is not clear why any of the passengers became sick but they were diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. Symptoms include diarreah, nausea and vomiting.

"The Public Health Agency of Canada has recommended to Air Canada that the plane carrying these passengers undergo a thorough cleaning to ensure potentially contaminated areas are disinfected," the agency said in prepared statement released to the media Tuesday night.

With a report from CTV Toronto MairiAnna Bachynsky