Best friends caught up in a mid-air terror have described how champagne went flying as their plane hit severe turbulence.

Daniel Kember, 20, and Richard Connaughton, both from Burgess Hill, were celebrating Richard's 21st birthday on board the Virgin Atlantic flight to Las Vegas.

An investigation has now been launched by the Crawley-based firm after some passengers claimed a stewardess repeatedly shouted: "We're going to crash."

The pair yesterday described how they thought they were going to die aboard the aircraft.

Richard said: "We had just got a bottle of champagne and we heard the screaming.

"We first thought it was just some random person screaming but then we realised it was the stewardess.

"It was really scary. There was an old lady in front of us, bless her, who was throwing up and loads of people all around us reaching for the sick bags.

"The bottle of champagne went flying about two rows back and everyone got covered in it.

"The annoying thing was I didn't get to drink any."

The Boeing 747400 reportedly plummeted about 8,000 feet in a matter of seconds during the incident.

Virgin Atlantic said the incident was still under investigation.