Jets scrambled amid security scare on US Airways flight

Two F-15 fighter jets have been scrambled to escort a transatlantic flight diverted amid a passenger's suspicious behaviour, say US officials.

The plane was due to land in Charlotte, North Carolina, but was sent over 900 miles (1,400km) away to Bangor, Maine.

The US Airways flight, with 179 passengers and nine crew, had taken off from Paris Charles de Gaulle at just after 11:00 local time on Tuesday.

The Boeing 767 landed safely in Bangor at around noon.

Transport Security Administration spokeswoman Jonella Culmer told the BBC: "TSA is aware of reports of a passenger who exhibited suspicious behaviour during flight.

"Out of an abundance of caution the flight was diverted to Bangor where it was met by law enforcement.

A Cameroon-born French woman announced on the plane that she had had a device surgically implanted, US Congressman Peter King's office told CNN.

Doctors aboard flight 787 examined the woman and saw no recent scars, added the office of Mr King, who is chairman of the House of Representatives' Committee on Homeland Security.

The plane was met by state, local and federal law enforcement officers in Bangor. FBI spokesman Greg Comcowich declined to say whether anyone was in custody.

John Cornelio, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), told the BBC that the two F-15s had been scrambled from a national guard base in Massachusetts.