BANGKOK (AFP) - An AirAsia flight bound for north-east Thailand turned back to the capital Bangkok shortly after takeoff on Tuesday when pilots detected an "irregularity" in the storage compartment, airline officials said.

The news comes as search teams detected debris in the sea from an AirAsia jet that vanished in a storm on Sunday en route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people aboard.

AirAsia Flight FD3254 returned to Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport soon after departing for Khon Kaen at 11.10am (1210 Singapore time).

It was allowed to resume service after engineers ruled out any technical problems.

"After departure from Don Mueang, the pilots detected a minor irregularity in the storage area, thus in the interest of safety the flight returned to land at Don Mueang Airport for a detailed inspection," said Thai AirAsia in a statement.

"Engineers did not discover any issues compromising the safety of flight FD3254," it said.

No passengers cancelled their flights and the plane arrived at its destination an hour behind schedule, officials said.

An AirAsia spokesman at Don Mueang Airport said the pilots turned back after "hearing some noise in the luggage compartment".

He could not confirm the reason for the noise.