Retirement present turns sour

LISTEN: Keith Burns speaks to 3AW's Neil Mitchell

An English man celebrating his retirement with a trip to Australia has told of the harrowing experience of being in the Qantas Airbus which was forced to land in northern Western Australia on Tuesday.

Keith Burns, travelling with his wife, told 3AW's Neil Mitchell he suffered only whiplash injuries from the emergency aboard QF72 travelling from Singapore to Perth, the A330 aircraft plummeting thousands of feet in seconds after striking severe turbulence.

"I just had lunch, and said to the wife 'we are descending'. And all of a sudden it just dropped like a lead balloon," he told 3AW.

"Another five seconds and people were screaming, and another five seconds it went down again. It was a real sensation I tell you."

Burns said that he had his seatbelt on at the time of the drama, but his description of what happened to the passengers who were not secured was horrifying.

"It looked like these people were in their washing machines and spinning around, the roof was caving in … bags were flying about," said Burns, before describing the damage to the cabin's interior. "You could see the frame of the aircraft and the electrics of the aircraft."

When pressed as to what the captain announced to the passengers during the emergency, Burns replied: "The pilot said 'bit of a malfunction, I am taking it down to Learmonth airport. In 10 minutes I will get you down'."

"Longest 10 minutes of my life, it felt like it was about three quarters of an hour before we got down."

Burns said he still has six flights booked with Qantas before returning to his home in England.