A fire in a mid-cabin bathroom forced an American Airlines flight to make an emergency landing in Halifax Tuesday night.

The Boeing 767-300 plane was bound for Zurich from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport when the fire broke out as cabin crew were serving meals, said American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan.

A flight attendant put out the fire and the plane made an emergency landing around 8:15 p.m., Halifax time - a little over an hour after it left New York.

None of the 206 people on board was injured, although Halifax International Airport Authority spokesman Peter Spurway said one woman was treated by paramedics on the scene.

Mr. Spurway said the plane was able to land without incident in a runway that had been closed to be checked for debris. "It created a minor disruption; nothing significant."

Ms. Fagan said the cause of the fire wasn't clear and the extent of the damage to the aircraft was still uncertain.

"There are a lot of possibilities but I'm not going to speculate," she said. "Truly, 'til you get a mechanic in there to look at it, [you don't know]"

Mr. Spurway said he had heard the fire was caused by an overheated fan in the bathroom, but Ms. Fagan said she doesn't think that's the case.

Last night passengers were waiting behind customs at the Halifax airport for a second plane to pick them up, scheduled for around 1 a.m.

"We are ferrying another aircraft to Halifax with a crew to pick up the passengers and take them on to Zurich. …Meanwhile the aircraft that's leaving JFK will also have mechanics on it who will go up and do whatever they have to do to the aircraft and it will come back to JFK tomorrow," Ms. Fagan said.

The emergency landing comes in the wake of a mysterious crash last week, when Air France Flight 447 plunged into the ocean, killing all 228 aboard. Yesterday, crews found a piece of the plane's tail as well as 16 bodies, which were taken to the Fernando de Noronha islands east of Brazil for identification.