TOKYO (AFP) - American model Chrissy Teigen and singer John Legend were reportedly among passengers whose flight from Los Angeles to Japan was forced to turn back because one person had boarded the wrong plane.

All Nippon Airways flight NH175 departed from Los Angeles International at 11.36am (1936 GMT) on Tuesday (Dec 26) for Narita Airport outside Tokyo, but returned to the US city after a matter of hours, the airline told AFP.

"As part of the airline's security procedure, the pilot in command decided to return to the originating airport, where the passenger was disembarked," ANA said.

"ANA is researching the situation currently to determine how the passenger boarded the flight."

Teigen fired off a series of tweets about the ordeal, saying all the passengers had to disembark and that police interviewed those seated "around the mystery person".

She retweeted a post from a fan alongside a selfie with her and her husband, Legend.

"My first tweet can't be more epic than this: just survived an 8-hour LAX-LAX flight with @chrissyteigen and @johnlegend on #ANA#NH175", the fan said.

After a series of tongue-in-cheek posts, Teigen herself seemed to take the debacle in her stride.

"Lmao after all this I will have spent 8 hours on a flight to nowhere. Like we were all just havin a great time up here flyin in the sky watching gran torino time to go home now", she tweeted.

"Why did we all get punished for this one person's mistake? Why not just land in Tokyo and send the other person back? How is this the better idea, you ask? We all have the same questions", she added.

The airline apologised to passengers for the inconvenience.