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Uninjured passengers on board a turbulent Singapore Airlines flight carrying 56 Australians have begun to return home following an emergency landing in Thailand on Tuesday.
Flight SQ321, bound for Singapore from London, experienced "severe turbulence" over Myanmar, which left 18 people hospitalised.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed that eight of those were Australian.
The ABC understands three of them are in intensive care at Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital.
A 73-year-old British man also died during the incident, likely due to a heart attack.
Singapore Airlines said in a statement that an additional 74 passengers and six crew members remain in Bangkok.
The first flight carrying passengers who were on board SQ321 landed at Sydney Airport on Wednesday afternoon, with several flights landing in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne later in the day.
Passenger Beverley Mayers said she was relieved to be home after a "very emotional" day.
"I woke up crying on the plane, and I don't normally cry," the 81-year-old from Port Macquarie said, after a trip to visit her daughter in the United Kingdom.
"We had had a bit of turbulence but that all stopped and I think they had served everyone breakfast, and I noticed one of the lockers had just come down.
"We hadn't touched it, so that was strange, and then suddenly everything went 'bang' and everything just fell."
The impact left her feeling "pure shock and fear" as items like glasses and shoes went flying across the cabin.
"I just don't know what you can think at that time ... great pieces were falling off and dropping on the floor, people were getting hit on the head," she said.
Ms Mayers said it was "scary" as the plane flew on to its the emergency landing.
"I think we all thought the plane was going to fall apart, I thought it was going to go in halves here."
"When they got us off the plane, there were a few of the staff who'd been injured — there'd been broken crockery — their faces were really covered in blood. It was awful."
She said there were multiple medical professionals on board, and fellow passengers were "marvellous" when it came to offering one another help.
Families of passengers waiting at Sydney Airport expressed relief at their loved one's return.
Ali Bukhari was on board with his wife, the newlyweds returning from their honeymoon.
"It was a very traumatic experience, it's hard to describe in words — no one expects that really," he said.
"A lot of people who were not wearing seatbelts were pushed up to the ceiling ... luckily we had our seatbelts on so we weren't injured, and physically we are okay," wife Ramiza Bukhari added.
"I've always been scared of turbulence and I think after this experience, I don't think I'll be getting on a plane anytime soon."
Mr Bukhari said all he wanted was to see his family during the ordeal, who met him at Sydney Airport.
Ahmed Khan whose sister was on board, said the experience was "severely traumatic" and that his sibling was "in shock".
"They were on the flight, they heard everything, all the bangs, they saw people flying around and they just couldn't put it into words when we talked to them last night," he said.
A DFAT spokesperson said officials from the Australian Embassy in Bangkok were providing consular assistance to the eight hospitalised and are investigating if any further Australians were affected.