Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's plane made an emergency landing at the Cumbica air base on Tuesday after a light indicated that the cargo hatch wasn't closed securely.

Lula was travelling from Sao Paulo to the northeastern city of Salvador.

According to Brazilian state news agency ABR, the presidential plane took off from Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo at 8:30 am (1030 GMT) and landed at Cumbica just 16 minutes later, because a light on the pilot's control panel indicated that the cargo compartment wasn't properly closed.

"As a precautionary measure, the pilot decided to land at the Cumbica air base, to find out whether there was a technical failure," ABR reported.

A subsequent check revealed there was no problem with the cargo hatch and it was, in fact, the light on the control panel that was defective.

The passengers safe, the plane took off at 9:31 am for Salvador in the state of Bahia.