The Brazilian airline TAM changed one of its flight numbers after a clairvoyant predicted a plane bearing the original number would crash shortly after take-off.

Jucelino Nobrega da Luz, who says he predicted the deaths of Princess Diana and Brazilian motor racing legend Ayrton Senna, told authorities that flight JJ3720, set to depart on Wednesday November 26 from Sao Paulo to Brasilia, would develop engine trouble and crash on Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue.

Leaving nothing to chance, TAM changed the flight code to JJ4732 after receiving the "indispensable information," AFP reported.

It told the news agency that passenger security was paramount at all times.

However, according to the Portuguese-language website R7 Noticias , the airline denied that the change in flight number was as a result of information received from the clairvoyant.

The same publication also pointed out that the flight does not actually fly over Paulista Avenue.

When it reported the story last week, it said more than half the seats were still available on the flight.

A quick search on the TAM booking engine shows that Brazilian flyers are refusing to be scared off – the flight is now fully sold out.

Media also quoted Nobrega da Luz as saying on Friday he had most recently predicted the death in a plane crash in August of the presidential candidate Eduardo Campos.

But he was notably off beam on the outcome of 2006 presidential elections in Brazil and also on a vaccine for AIDS being discovered in 2008.