The complaints arose after a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 jumbo jet, with 451 passengers on board, hit severe turbulence over Greenland during a flight from London to Las Vegas last Friday.
Businesswoman Claire Daley told London's Daily Mail: "She [the flight attendant] screamed every time we dropped and at one point chanted three times 'We're going to crash'".
Another passenger reportedly said: "This hysterical stewardess was telling everyone we were going to die."
But another passenger, Paul Gibson, told BBC Radio Five Live that he first thought a passenger had cried out.
"I could hear there was somebody sort of crying or sort of yelping as the plane shook. My first impression was that it was a passenger so I didn't really think anything of it," he said.
The BBC reported that other passengers said people were crying and being sick after the flight attendant panicked.
Douglas Marshall, a BBC journalist on the flight said he heard screams but could not say where they originated. But he said the flight crew had been "very scared" when during the turbulence.
"If the flight crew are scared then you know something is seriously wrong," he told the BBC.
"The plane was juddering, up and down. I was trying to take a step but just ended up lying on the floor.
"It was very, very scary. Most people on that plane thought they were going to die."
A Virgin spokeswoman said the investigation would start when the crew from the flight returned to the UK. She said passenger safety was the airline's top priority
Sydney Morning Herald
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