The redeye flight from Detroit to Amsterdam U-turned over Newfoundland and diverted to New York early Wednesday morning, according to data from Flightradar24.
In a statement to the AP, Delta Air Lines said the Airbus A330 turned around “after reports that a portion of the main cabin in-flight meal service were spoiled.”
A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told the outlet that 24 people were treated by medical personnel upon landing. That included 10 crew members and 14 of the plane’s 277 passengers, they said.
Nobody was hospitalized, and it’s unclear if more people ate the dubious food.
Travel news site Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported that thousands of Delta passengers on other international flights on Wednesday were only offered a vegetarian meal as a result.
“This is not the service Delta is known for, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay in their travels,” Delta told the AP. It added that it was investigating the incident.
Delta and the PANYNJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular US working hours.
Similar incidents have occurred on other airlines in recent months.
In May, a United Airlines plane had to be taken out of service for a deep clean after 30 passengers fell ill, with symptoms like vomiting and nausea. The cause is being investigated.
Earlier that month, 70 passengers reported similar symptoms on a Condor flight. The airline said it would implement “more intensive cleaning measures” as a result.
The most famous airline-vomiting incident occurred on a 1975 Japan Air Lines flight. Nearly 200 passengers fell ill, 144 of whom were taken to the hospital. It was later found that some of the meals had been contaminated by Staphylococcus bacteria, which caused food poisoning.
