Brazil police clear Air France jet after bomb scare

Air France flight 443, en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, landed Saturday night in Recife and was positioned in a remote area of the airport for security checks. The 405 passengers and 18 crew on the Boeing 747-400 were evacuated.

Police finalized their inspection of the plane and bags on Sunday "and no explosive devices were found," Brazil's airport authority Infraero said in a statement.

The security alert occurred after a bomb threat was called into the Rio de Janeiro airport, said Osmar Maduro, an Air France spokesman. The crew was informed during the flight, he said, adding that police were investigating the incident.

"Our flight left at 16:30 (8:30 p.m. BST)," a passenger identified only as Livia told Brazil's GloboNews. "Around 19:00, a little after dinner, we were informed that we would make a stop because of problems that they didn't explain."

The passengers remained calm, Livia told GloboNews.

The plane was rescheduled to take off Sunday evening after it was cleared by security.

(Reporting by Henri-Pierre Andre in Paris and Luciana Lopez in Sao Paulo; editing by Paul Simao)