CANBERRA - Virgin Blue confirmed two passengers and two cabin crew have suffered minor injuries after their plane hit turbulence en route to Melbourne of Australia on Tuesday morning.

The company said the flight, VA20, from Phuket of Thailand, encountered "moderate turbulence", and some passengers became sick because of a combination of food poisoning and the turbulence.

"One passenger was suffering food poisoning and was vomiting as a result," paramedic team manager Jerome Peyton told Australia Associated Press on Tuesday.

Peyton said other people near the sick passenger also became ill.

Two flight crew also suffered minor injuries when one struck their head and another fell over and an airline trolley landed on them.

None of the ill required treatment by ambulance staff.

Meanwhile, some passengers described the turbulence was a scary experience.

Michelle Baghdassarian, who was traveling with her three small children, said it was the scariest flight she had been on.

"They may try and say it was turbulence but something was wrong, " Baghdassarian told Herald Sun. "We weren't just going down. The plane was nosediving."

One man told ABC News that the turbulence lasted about ten seconds.

"The plane lifted up and then it came down very fast and it seemed to nose dive for a few seconds," he said. "There was lots of screaming and panic on board."

Virgin Blue said there were 361 people on board.