Sydney  - Six passengers and a member of the Qantas Airways Ltd flight crew were injured when "severe turbulence" affected a flight from Hong Kong to Perth, the airline said in a statement Monday.

Flight QF68 encountered turbulence over Borneo when it was four hours into Sunday's flight.

The Airbus A330 is the same type of plane involved in the Air France flight that went down over the Atlantic earlier this month with the expected loss of 228 lives.

"I saw one gentleman with a very badly cut head, and an older lady next to me, she kind of hit the roof," a passenger told national broadcaster ABC after disembarking in Perth.

Qantas said there was no reason to link the incident to other recent events involving A330 aircraft.

In October a Qantas Airbus flying from Singapore to Perth made an emergency landing at a military base in Western Australia after a nose dive injured 70 people.

"There were no indications of any events to do with the aircraft or its systems," Qantas spokesman David Epstein said. "It appears to be purely a meteorological event," he said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the incident. (dpa)