6NEWS

A plane at Charlotte-Douglas airport was evacuated after a suspicious substance was reported onboard.

It was an unnerving flight for passengers aboard a plane bound for New York after the plane was diverted to Charlotte-Douglas airport because of a suspicious odor.

AirTran flight #372 was originally headed to LaGuardia airport in New York from Atlanta, GA but made an emergency landing in Charlotte around 8:15 p.m.

Shortly after takeoff a flight attendant noticed a bottle of water in the back of a seat. The flight attendant spoke to the passenger and reminded him that passengers were no longer allowed to bring water bottles on board. She took possession of the water bottle and told passenger she was going to discard it. It is not known at this time how the item was disposed.

Once the flight attendant discarded the bottle, she noticed a strong odor from the area.The five person flight crew then made a decision to divert the flight to Charlotte.

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Charlotte-Mecklenburg police responded to the airport and cleared all 137 people from the plane upon landing. Officers spoke to passengers, including the person who had the water bottle.

"The airport firefighters along with the airport officials were safely watching all of the passengers deplane, they were put on buses and shuttle buses and taken to a safe area away from the plane," said Captain Rob Brisley of the CFD.

AirTran employees worked most of the night trying to get those passengers onto other flights.

Nothing hazardous was found on the plane, according to police. The cause of the odor has not been identified at this time.

6NEWS reporters Anna Crowley and Nicole Konkal contributed information used in this report.