A United Airlines flight that departed from BWI, bound for San Francisco, was diverted to Dulles Airport this morning instead after reports of a strong odor of fuel on board.

“United 1675 from Baltimore-Washington to San Francisco diverted to Washington Dulles because a strong odor in the cabin,” United said in a statement provided to DCist. “The aircraft landed safely and taxied to a gate. Customers were immediately deplaned and evaluated by medical personnel. Several customers were transported to local hospitals and released. All customers are being rebooked on flights to San Francisco from Washington-Dulles.”

Among the passengers affected was a local nightlife blogger who writes under the name Barred in DC, who was on the plane with his wife.

Did not expect to be in a hospital this morning. @united flight 1375 from BWI to SFO was diverted (above Cumberland, MD) back to IAD. Faint fuel smell was on plane before we departed and was quite strong while in air. Tons of firetrucks, about 20 people complaining of nausea, pic.twitter.com/lDrl7HaMfO

— Barred in DC (@BarredinDC) March 29, 2019

Seven people were transported to local hospitals, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and his wife was one of them. Passenger symptoms included nausea, chest pains, headaches, anxiety attacks, and trouble breathing, per Barred in DC.

“Before take-off, you could detect [a] faint smell of fuel,” Barred in DC told DCist via Twitter direct message. “As we continued to go to cruising altitude, the smell became very strong (I have terrible sense of smell and it even bothered me). About 25 minutes into flight, captain said over intercom calmly ‘Attention, we are going to going to land at Dulles. There’s a fuel odor on the airplane so we will check it out.’ … We landed and then were immediately surrounded by first responders in masks who looked for a fuel leak … We were divided into two groups as we left to the gate, folks with symptoms and folks without. We got on an ambulance on tarmac like 10 min later.”

According to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the Boeing 737 plane landed without incident, and there have been no impacts to airport operations. United Airlines did not comment on the reason for the mysterious smell, thought it told passengers the flight was canceled “because of prolonged ventilation system maintenance on [the] plane,” per Barred in DC.

Barred in DC and his wife are now rebooked on a 4:45 p.m. flight to San Francisco, where they are headed for a friend’s wedding, and are slated to arrive approximately 10 hours later than expected.