Indonesia Air Asia flight to Bali experiences mid-flight crisis; passengers allege crew behaviour aggravated the panic

 About half an hour into the flight, Flight QZ 535 from Perth, Australia, the plane lost height rapidly and oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling owing to cabin depressurisation, media reported.

Passengers were also asked to get into the brace position, reports said.

According to media reports, passengers alleged that they were traumatised by the behaviour of the cabin crew who turned hysterical and even screamed 'emergency'. 

"Hostesses started screaming: 'Emergency, emergency,'" Mark Bailey, one of the passengers, told Australia's Seven News."There was no real panic before that, then everyone panicked."

Another media report quoted Leah, a passenger from Perth as saying, "“I actually picked up my phone and sent a text message to my family, just hoping that they would get it."

Clare Askew, another passenger, said that the panic escalated "because of the behavior of staff who were screaming, looked tearful and shocked."

The Bali, Indonesia-bound plane was met by emergency service workers when it returned safely to Perth about an hour and a half after it had taken off, media reported.

Passengers were transferred to other flights and given "all necessary assistance," the airline said.

"We commend our pilots for landing the aircraft safely and complying with standard operating procedure," Ling Liong Tien, head of safety for AirAsia Group, said in a statement. "We are fully committed to the safety of our guests and crew and we will continue to ensure that we adhere to the highest safety standards."

In 2014, Indonesia AirAsia's Singapore-bound Flight QZ 8501 had crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 162 people on board, according to media reports.