AirStar

A Charlotte firefighter carries two black bags from the cargo area of a US Airways plane. Click here for more images from the scene

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A plane was held for hours at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the hazmat team brought in after a strange substance was found aboard a US Airways plane Tuesday.

“Anything can happen nowadays, usually does,” said one onlooker.

Arriving passengers could see the commotion.

“When my plane landed we could see a whole series of fire trucks," said Dave Economon. "It looked like they were going through the plane, at least through the cargo area.”

Substance removed from plane at Charlotte-Douglas

That’s exactly what was happening. A US airways spokeswoman says ramp workers found the strange red, sticky substance as they were putting things on the plane Tuesday morning in the cargo area.

Charlotte Fire Chief Tony Ray says tests determined it was, “Some type of food product is all I can say. I can not identify it. We do a process of elimination, not identification."

He said the tests determined it was not harmful.

The US Airways spokeswoman saw the substance and guessed it was jelly or cough syrup.

Onlookers at the airport observation deck had guesses too.

"It's probably jelly, probably jelly," one man said.

"Some kind of syrup," said another.

Even the fire chief had a guess.

"Molasses or something like that," Ray said.

There were 183 passengers who were waiting to board the plane for Tampa. Three and a half hours after their scheduled departure they were given another plane.

The plane with the mystery substance was also later cleared and put back into service.