Passengers on a New Zealand-Australia Qantas flight that was the subject of a bomb scare arrived in Sydney on Sunday afternoon.

Flight QF142 was turned back to Auckland about 90 minutes into its journey to Sydney on Sunday morning after a suspicious item was reported to have been found on board.

Qantas said Auckland police had met the plane on arrival and conducted checks on the aircraft.

NZ police said in a statement that the item had turned out to be a part of the interior of the aircraft that was not normally visible.

A spokeswoman for Qantas said the aircraft landed safely and without incident, and did not make an emergency landing.

‘‘The flight returned to Auckland as a precaution after an unidentified item was found on board,’’ she said in a statement on Sunday.

She said the passengers resumed their flight to Sydney at 1320 local time after police checks cleared the aircraft.



Earlier, the "suspicious item" that forced the jet to return to Auckland turned out to be part of the plane's interior that is not normally visible.

With AAP, with stuff.co.nz

