A French woman forced a transatlantic flight from Paris to North Carolina to be diverted to Maine today by claiming that she had a "surgically implanted device," US lawmakers said.

The US Airways jet with 179 passengers and crew on board landed safely in Bangor, Maine, where the woman was ejected and taken into custody by the FBI before the Boeing 767 continued its journey to Charlotte, North Carolina.

The passenger "handed a note to a flight attendant that said she had a surgically implanted device inside her," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King said in a statement.

Describing the woman as Cameroon born, traveling alone with no checked baggage and visiting the US for 10 days, King said he was told that "doctors on the flight checked her out and did not see any sign of recent scars."

Senator Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, received a phone briefing from Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole and gave similar details.

"We have seen intelligence identifying surgically implanted bombs as a threat to air travel," Collins added.

"My understanding is TSA issued security directives recently to airports, airline carriers, TSA screeners and foreign governments advising them to take added screening precautions and to be on the lookout for indicators of surgically implanted explosives."

But a US official told AFP that the suspect was unlikely to be part of a broader international terror plot linked to groups such as Al-Qaeda.

"It doesn't appear to be any terrorist nexus at this point," said the official, who confirmed the woman involved was a French national.

In an earlier written statement, US Airways only said that a passenger had "exhibited suspicious behavior during flight" from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

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