At least nine passengers from Australia were vomiting from food poisoning during a nearly 10-hour flight from Australia yesterday, and all of the 260 people onboard had to be sequestered in the plane for two more hours once they landed in Honolulu.

Seven women and two boys aboard the Jetstar flight from Melbourne were affected, said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman.

However Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said that 10 passengers became ill — three of them from "star class" and seven in economy class. "The vast majority of the passengers" were from Australia, Westaway said.

A 49-year-old woman was taken by ambulance to Hawaii Medical Center East, where she was treated for dehydration and nausea and later released, Ishikawa said.

"All of them had symptoms of vomiting, but no symptoms of fever, which would have indicated something more serious," Ishikawa said. "I'm not sure if the food was consumed on the plane or elsewhere. But you have to quarantine the plane to make sure it's nothing more serious."

The first passenger began vomiting before flight attendants began serving food or drinks, Westaway said, and some had symptoms even before boarding the plane.

Some of the passengers who vomited did not eat any food on the plane, Westaway said.

"We're not ruling anything out," Westaway said. "But it looks more likely that these people felt sick through consuming food or other means other than the consumption of food or beverages on that plane."

Jetstar officials are checking with the plane's food vendor, as well as with companies that sell food in Melbourne International Airport, Westaway said.

Jetstar flight JQ001 lifted off at 6:30 p.m. Melbourne time more than an hour behind schedule because a new pilot had to come aboard "for technical reasons" unrelated to food poisoning, Westaway said.

The Airbus 330-200 wide body landed at Honolulu International Airport at 7:45 a.m. yesterday after nine hours and 52 minutes in the air, Westaway said.

The plane then sat on the tarmac for more than two hours in a new quarantine area at the 'ewa end of the airport's concourse waiting to be cleared by federal health officials, Ishikawa said.

Westaway said the passengers were understanding and cooperative.

The flight crew "kept people briefed at what was occurring," Westaway said. "They explained there were a number of people who felt sick on the flight and officials just needed to make sure everything was fine."

U.S. Public Health officials finally released the passengers at about 10 a.m., Ishikawa said.

"Any time we have a plane with a number of people sick, we have the plane park at the far end of the airport as a quarantine area we're putting together," he said.

Jetstar is based in Melbourne and advertises itself as Australia's and Singapore's newest low-fare airline for Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

Jetstar's Australian operation is wholly owned by Qantas but is managed separately and operates independently, according to the company's Web site.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.