A French couple who tried in vain to get last-minute seats on the Air France flight that disappeared between Rio de Janeiro overnight said it was "miraculous" they missed the plane.

"It's miraculous — we should have been on the plane," medical professor Claude Jaffiol told AFP at Rio's international airport.

"We were in Brasilia and we decided to cut our trip short and return to (the French city of) Montpellier," he said, his wife beside him sharing his sense of having avoided tragedy by the slimmest of margins.

Jaffiol explained he had been in the Brazilian capital for a seminar and had stayed for a few days of tourism, but decided to fly home earlier than planned.

Despite having "moved heaven and Earth" to try to get on the flight, they were turned away because it was full, he said.

"We've had an amazing stroke of luck. After awhile we were afraid, and our thoughts are with those who were in the plane," his wife Amina said.

She added that she would be taking her return flight to France with a certain "apprehension."

AFP

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