Passenger flight makes emergency landing at major airport in U.S. East Coast

NEW YORK, March 9 (Xinhua) -- A passenger flight made an emergency landing at the Newark Liberty International Airport in the U.S. state of New Jersey Saturday morning due to a possible fire in the cargo hold, causing a temporary shutdown of the airport, authorities said.

Canada's Air Transat flight 942 was flying from Montreal, Canada to Fort Lauderdale in the U.S. state of Florida and diverted to Newark at around 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) after reports of smoke in the cargo hold, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Boeing 737 had 189 passengers and six crew members on board. Passengers were evacuated onto the runway via emergency slides, said airline spokeswoman Debbie Cabana.

Airport firefighters responded to the scene and the Newark airport was shut down for about an hour. Arriving and departing flights were both delayed for at least 45 minutes.

There were two minor injuries among the passengers, but they were unrelated to the smoke, the airport said in a tweet.

No fire was found in the plane and what caused the smoke remains under investigation.

The airline sent another plane to operate flight 942, Air Transat said on Twitter. E